A judge has warned of ‘threats of Tik-Tok’ as he directed a man to today delete all photos and videos of his ex-girlfriend from his mobile phone.
At the Family Law Court in Ennis, Judge Alec Gabbett told the man “there are plenty more fish in the sea” before the man gave a sworn undertaking to stay away from his ex-girlfriend.
The two are young adults and Judge Gabbett told the man: “There are plenty more fish in the sea. Off you go. Leave her alone. Okay?”
The man replied “yes” and gave a sworn undertaking from the witness box that he wouldn’t put the woman in fear; wouldn’t communicate with her by phone, online or Snapchat and wouldn’t watch or beset her.
The man gave the sworn undertaking on the basis that the temporary Protection Order the woman had previously obtained against him in court on an ex-parte basis would be struck out.
Solicitor for the man, Shiofra Hassett said that the contents of the woman’s statement grounding the Protection Order “were inflammatory and denied”.
When asked by Judge Gabbett if he had photographs and videos of the woman on his mobile phone, the man replied ‘yes’.
Judge Gabbett told him: “Delete them today.”
Judge Gabbett warned the man that the Gardai could search his phone.
Ms Hassett said: “The photos are not in that vein judge – in case the court thought they were of a certain nature. They were not part of the case.”
In reply, Judge Gabbett said: “The court will assume that they are of a certain nature – I don’t live under a rock.”
He said: “It is the same for all people of this age – there are threats of Tik-Tok and all sorts of things going on.”
Judge Gabbett told the woman: “If he gives you further trouble, you need to come back here and we will sort it out for you okay?”
Judge Gabbett told the man that the case “has all the hallmarks of someone who will end up with a criminal record” and he wouldn’t get past Garda vetting for parts of his work if he did get a record.
The court was told that there were no physical issues in the case – the grounds for the Protection Order concerned communication after the couple broke up.
Judge Gabbett said that the man “has not been dealing very well with the break up and he needs to move on”.
Judge Gabbett said with young people nowadays “it is far too easy to communicate with each other and that’s the problem – there is a great facility on mobile phones called ‘Block’”.
