Limerick couple waged ‘campaign of intimidation and harassment’ against dentist

A Limerick couple who waged a “campaign of intimidation and harassment” against their former dentist, which included false sexual accusations against her, sending her a vulgar card and damaging her car, have been remanded in jail pending sentence.

Michael De Souza (36) and Emma Maun (28) a former couple who share an address at Sheehan’s Flats, Askeaton, Co Limerick, face a maximum 10 years in prison.

Outlining a summary of the facts before a sentencing hearing at Limerick Circuit Criminal Court last Monday, 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 she started sending the dentist private messages via her personal social media account, which was “highly unusual” and which the dentist said made her feel “uneasy”.

The dentist also received “unnerving” private messages on Instagram 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 them frequently loitering outside the dentist’s workplace and “staring at her”.

“The victim found this alarming,” said Mr O’Sullivan.

De Sousa admitted sending the dentist an “extremely vulgar” card on Valentine 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 2002.

In another worrying episode, Maun drove De Sousa to the dentist’s home at 4.30am where De Sousa 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 was “afraid” and 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 what Maun and De Sousa were doing, and that it appeared they both 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.

Maun told gardaí that she made a complaint about the dentist to the Irish Dental Association, but gardaí discovered this was not true.

De Sousa pleaded guilty to making false statements about the dentist and with causing criminal damage to her car, in Marc h2022.

The sentencing hearing heard that De Sousa and Maun each contested a single charge of harassment, which they were convicted of by a jury of 10 following a four-week trial last month.

Through their barristers, Maun and De Sousa issued apologies to the dentist but they both said did not accept the jury’s verdict.

Maun wrote a letter begging the sentencing Judge, Dermot Sheehan, not to jail her, saying she needed to be with her daughter (5), who has health difficulties.

The dentist broke down in court describing in a victim impact statement how she “feared for my safety” during the campaign of harassment.

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’Sullivan and Det 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 on July 26th.