A LIMERICK couple who waged a “campaign of intimidation and harassment” against their former dentist, which included false sexual accusations against her, sending her vulgar cards, and damaging her car, have been remanded in jail pending sentence.
Michael De Sousa (36) and Emma Maun (28), a former couple who share an address at Sheehan’s Flats, Askeaton, County Limerick, face a maximum 10 years in prison.
Outlining the case before Limerick Circuit Criminal Court, prosecution counsel John O’Sullivan BL said the dentist had performed routine dental work on Maun and De Sousa in 2020 and 2021.
The dentist, who cannot be named by court order, later referred Maun to a maxillofacial clinic because she required more complex treatment.
Mr O’Sullivan said Maun was “unhappy” about having to go to another clinic and started sending the dentist “highly unusual” social media messages.
The dentist also received “unnerving” private messages from an anonymous user, including “a rant” about her personal life.
The court heard Maun and De Sousa conducted “a campaign of months of intimidation and harassment” which included frequently loitering outside the dentist’s workplace and “staring at her”.
Mr O’Sullivan said De Sousa admitted sending the dentist an “extremely vulgar” card on Valentine’s Day 2022, which “left her fearful and disgusted, and it accentuated her anxiety”.
Matters escalated and Maun followed the dentist by car from her workplace on her route home one evening in March 2020.
In another worrying episode, Maun drove De Sousa to the dentist’s home at 4.30am where he smeared “creamy liquid” over the dentist’s car.
“It turned out to be pancake mix and a wing mirror on the car was damaged.”
The dentist told Gardaí she had “no peace of mind because of the stalking of Michael De Sousa and Emma Maun”.
She told Gardaí there was “no rationale” behind Maun and De Sousa’s actions, and that it appeared they had “a bizarre fixation with me and I don’t know why”.
After the dentist made a formal complaint to Gardaí, De Sousa visited two Garda stations and made completely false statements of sexual impropriety against the dentist.
Gardaí compiled 54 individual CCTV video clips that put Maun and De Sousa outside the dentist’s workplace and in the vicinity of her home.
While carrying out a legal search of the defendant’s home, Gardaí found a mobile phone belonging to De Sousa containing search and location coordinates for the dentist’s house.
They also found evidence relevant to social media exchanges between Maun and the dentist which supported the State’s case.
De Sousa pleaded guilty to making false statements about the dentist and causing criminal damage to her car.
De Sousa and Maun had each contested a charge of harassment, which they were convicted of by a jury of 10 following the defendant’s four-week trial last month.
Through their barristers, Maun and De Sousa issued apologies to the dentist, but said they did not accept the jury’s verdict.
Defence barristers Liam Carroll BL, acting for De Sousa, and Amy Nix BL, acting for Maun, told the court that the defendants had been abused by relatives when they were children and each accused had suffered personal difficulties because of this.
Maun wrote a letter begging sentencing Judge Dermot Sheehan not to jail her, saying that she needed to be with her five-year-old daughter who has health issues.
The dentist broke down in court describing in a victim impact statement how she “feared for my safety” during the campaign of harassment.
She and her colleagues would peer out of the windows of the dental practice “looking for safe passage”.
“I would watch cars, check registration plates, it became disruptive and exhaustive.”
Apart from going to work, the dentist said said she “did not feel safe going outside”.
“I did not invite this vile behaviour into my life, I did not deserve this – nobody does.”
“I worry what they might do next”.
She said the card De Sousa sent her “makes my skin crawl” and seeing the defendants laughing during their trial “was sickening”.
She thanked Garda Patrick O’Sulllivan and Detective Garda Pat Whelan “for their considered attention and their assurances that my initial concerns were not trivial”.
“I put my trust in the Gardaí and the court system, and I feel justice has been served. I feel I can now move on.”
De Sousa and Maun will be sentenced later this month.
