Kirk Loco. Seán McCárthaigh
Newtownmountkennedy
Kirk Loco pleaded not guilty to a charge of distributing or publishing a threatening or grossly offensive communication about an individual with intent to cause harm.
A SOCIAL MEDIA post which allegedly contained false claims that an asylum seeker exposed himself on a bus to a teenage girl caused fear in a Wicklow community, a trial has heard.
Kirk Loco (45) of Waverly Meadow, Rathnew, Co Wicklow pleaded not guilty to a charge of distributing or publishing a threatening or grossly offensive communication about an individual with intent to cause harm at a sitting of Bray District Court today,
The alleged offence was a post published by the accused on his X (formerly Twitter) account on 21 June 2024.
Loco is charged with an offence contrary to Section 4 of the Harassment, Harmful Communications and Related Offences Act 2020 – known colloquially as Coco’s Law which was implemented following the tragic death of Nicole “Coco” Fox who died by suicide in 2018 after enduring severe online abuse and bullying.
The alleged tweet claimed an intoxicated migrant living in Trudder House, Newtownmountkennedy, Co Wicklow had exposed himself to a 14-year-old girl on a 133 bus between Dublin and Wicklow on 20 July 2024.
The post, which contained a photo of a male asleep on a bus, encouraged others to share the details of the alleged incident.
It also stated that anyone who welcomed such men to Newtownmountkennedy or made donations or promoted togetherness and integration of them into the local community were to blame.
They were also accused of “cheering on pedophilia (sic).” The post also tagged a number of high-profile, anti-immigrant activists.
Sergeant Lorraine Heffernan said gardaí were satisfied that what was claimed in the defendant’s tweet did not occur.
She told the court that the post had around 9,000 views and had “caused fear” among people living in the area and “severe stress” for the individual in the photo.
Heffernan also confirmed that gardaí had received no reports about any incident on the bus.
The court heard that Loco’s tweet was based on a WhatsApp message posted by the sister of a teenage girl on the bus to the “Newtown Says No” group – which opposed the housing of international protection applicants in Trudder House.
Defence counsel Laoise de Brún BL claimed Loco was doing “persistent journalism” in trying to check if gardaí had been contacted about the incident.
However, Garda Doyle said he was a media spokesperson for the Newtown Says No group.
She told the court she found the tweet “grossly offensive” as it has accused a person of a serious offence.
Doyle said it was clearly not the case from CCTV footage on the bus that someone had exposed themselves to a 14-year-old girl on the bus.
She observed that “tensions were high” in Newtownmountkennedy at the time with a number of incidents reported which proved to be false as well as “a lot of false narrative spread on social media.”
Doyle disagreed with de Brún’s suggestion that the context of the tweet was “political debate.”
A teenage girl gave evidence that she was approached by another woman on the bus who warned her about a man exposing himself.
The witness said the individual looked disorderly and intoxicated.
She told the court she was scared as the woman had told her he had been touching himself.
The teenager said the man’s belt seemed open and she could see his belly and some pubic hair.
She also admitted taking the photo which was contained in the defendant’s tweet.
The girl’s mother gave evidence that her daughter was “shaken and visibly upset” by what had happened.
The court heard that while the asylum seeker was not named, his features were identifiable in the photo.
In evidence, the international protection applicant, a Palestinian whose name cannot be published for legal reasons, said he had fallen asleep on the bus as he had taken a lot of painkillers due to a dental filling.
He denied being intoxicated or harassing anyone but said he was embarrassed and afraid by what he subsequently saw in the tweet.
CCTV footage showed he moved into a seat with a young woman during the journey before moving back to the seat in front of her.
A short time later, she went downstairs to speak to the driver who stopped the bus and came upstairs to speak to the witness.
Under cross-examination, he claimed he moved into the female passenger’s seat to try and charge his phone but moved away after he thought she felt uncomfortable.
De Brún observed that something “notable and egregious” must have happened that another passenger told him to leave the girl alone and for her to complain to the bus driver and warn the teenager about him.
However, he replied that he “never did anything wrong” and denied that his pubic hair was exposed.
The bus driver, Leslie Keegan, gave evidence that he stopped the bus and went upstairs after a woman told him she felt uncomfortable about another passenger.
Keegan said he saw a man rolled up in a ball at the back of the bus asleep or pretending to be asleep.
He told State solicitor Rory Staines that he did not see anything that warranted alerting gardaí.
Keegan said the woman, who was not distressed, had told him that the man had touched her leg, but it was while he was trying to charge his phone.
He recalled that she had also remarked that his trousers were “quite low.”
De Brún pointed out that it was physically impossible that the witness could have fallen into a deep sleep when the bus driver approached him as CCTV footage showed him talking to other passengers 38 seconds earlier.
Although the witness claimed he was woken up by the driver, Judge John Cheedle noted that the footage showed he had remained “comatose.”
Garda Chris McLean told the court that the defendant had made a complaint of online harassment to gardaí in August 2024 when a social media post had claimed he was “a far-right ringleader” who lived in Rathnew.
McLean said Loco had admitted when reporting the matter that he operated and had full control of an X account in the name of Terry K.
In reply to questions from de Brún, he concluded the issue was a “social media dispute” between people on different sides of the political spectrum.
The trial was adjourned and will resume next week.