Garda cybercrime expert also threatened Late Late host Patrick Kielty
A garda cybercrime expert who has been suspended over hate tweets about Tánaiste Simon Harris, also targeted Late Late host Patrick Kielty.
Jonathan O’Neill, an executive officer at the Garda National Cyber Crime Bureau, called Mr Harris – whose family have been subjected to other vile threats – a ‘c***’ and said the fact that Mr Harris is walking the streets ‘without fear for his life is a failure of this country’.
O’Neill, who is not a serving Garda officer but a civilian employee in the force, also abused a whistleblower who is well known, calling him a ‘psychopath’ who will ‘one day be beheaded by the freaks he advocates for’.
Pic: Sam Boal/Collins Photos
In another post, he openly told his followers he worked for the ‘Irish police’ and suggested that he can trace IP addresses. His suspension comes just weeks after Mr Harris and his family were advised not to return home until security checks had been carried out following chilling threats made against them.
It also comes several days after a woman appeared in court charged with making threats to the Fine Gael leader and his family.
A source in Mr Harris’s office described the threats as ‘absolutely shocking’.
They said: ‘The Tánaiste being threatened by people working in An Garda Síochána and then not even being told about it is incredible. He is obviously aware of many threats but he wasn’t aware they were now coming from within the Garda.’
Pic: Dave Benett/WireImage/Getty Images
Gardaí confirmed they are ‘assessing the nature and content of online activity by an identified person’.
The controversy was revealed exclusively by Extra.ie.
A Garda spokesman also confirmed a ‘member of Garda staff’ in Dublin has been suspended.
The employee, who joined the GNCCB as an ‘executive officer’ last year, also made two separate threats against the Tánaiste.
In August, under a news article about a meeting Mr Harris, had with Ireland India Council following a spate of racially motivated attacks, Mr O’Neill wrote: ‘The fact this c*** walks the streets without fear for his life is a failure of this country.’
The cybercrime bureau employee also posted threatening and abusive messages about the health service whistleblower Shane Corr, The Late Late Show presenter Patrick Kielty, and the journalist Joe O’Shea.
Tánaiste Simon Harris speaking in Brussels on Monday. Pic: Olivier Hoslet/EPA-EFE/REX/Shutterstock
In posts directed at Mr Corr, he called the whistleblower a ‘freak’, said ‘karma will be sweet’ and told him his ‘time is coming’.
He also said the only solution for people with an opposing opinion to his is to ‘wipe them out’.
In another foul-mouthed threat, the Garda employee called Late Late host Mr Kielty a ‘pretentious c***’ and said: ‘Your day and your leftist w****r allies’ days are numbered.’
In a separate post about Covid vaccines, he said Mr O’Shea ‘shouldn’t be allowed to walk the streets without fear for his life’.
A source in Mr Harris’s office said he had asked gardaí to brief him on such matters, adding: ‘His worry is that some day somebody will act upon these things, possibly towards him, but likely towards somebody he knows.’
