Mark McAnaw, a convicted rapist and former resident of Donegal, has been sentenced to 11 years in prison for threatening and harassing three female journalists from the Sunday World.
McAnaw (53), previously residing in Letterkenny, declined to agree to a bond during proceedings at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court. Acceptance of the bond would have resulted in the suspension of the final 12 months of his 11-year sentence for harassing Nicola Tallant, Amanda Brunker, and Deirdre Reynolds.
According to Rebecca Smith BL, McAnaw’s legal counsel, her client refused the bond after Judge Pauline Codd detailed the conditions attached to the suspended portion of the sentence, deeming them “onerous.”
Consequently, Judge Codd imposed the full 11-year sentence.
Judge Codd also issued a lifelong order prohibiting McAnaw from directly or indirectly contacting the women, approaching them, entering within 16 kilometers of their homes or workplaces, or communicating with them in any way.
McAnaw, formerly of Letterkenny, Co Donegal, pleaded guilty to harassing Ms. Tallant, Ms. Brunker, and Ms. Reynolds on several occasions in August 2023. He was previously convicted of raping a foreign student in Donegal in 2010.
The court was informed that McAnaw repeatedly sent the three journalists violent and sexually threatening emails and messages, eventually escalating to threats of shooting one of them.
McAnaw is currently being held at the Central Mental Hospital.
The court heard that McAnaw does not acknowledge his schizophrenia diagnosis and has refused to take medication.
His previous criminal record includes the 2010 rape of a foreign student in Donegal, for which he received a nine-year prison sentence in 2012.
McAnaw also has a 1989 conviction for kidnapping and convictions from a Northern Ireland court in 2011 for assaults causing actual bodily harm.
Additionally, he was convicted of aggravated assault for attacking a woman in her home in April 2018, resulting in a sentence of eight years and four months in June 2023.
This latter sentence was backdated to 2018 when he was taken into custody, with the final 16 months suspended for 16 years under strict conditions.
McAnaw was released from custody on that sentence in July 2023, just one month before he began harassing the three journalists.
Convicted Donegal rapist who harassed female journalists jailed for 11 years was last modified: June 6th, 2025 by
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