Rodney de Khors jailed for online harassment

This report is a localnews.ie summary based on public court reporting and records; sources are listed below.

Rodney de Khors was sentenced at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court on 12 February 2024 to three years for harassment, with the final 20 months suspended. The custodial sentence amounted to 16 months. Judge Martin Nolan imposed the sentence and agreed that psychiatric care should be available to De Khors in custody.

De Khors pleaded guilty to one count of harassing a man between 12 August 2019 and 31 August 2020. He used social-media posts to label the man a sexual deviant, predator and paedophile, and posted doctored images while tagging the man’s employer.

Defence counsel Kevin Roche BL said De Khors believed he was being a ‘good Samaritan’ while helping a woman he had met online, who supplied images and employer details. A psychological report described acute mental-health difficulties, and Mr Roche said De Khors was at low risk of reoffending.

Judge Nolan described the offending as a prolonged campaign of spreading falsehoods online that was seriously injurious. The proceedings were reported on 13 February 2024.