THE GIRLFRIEND OF a Corkman convicted of shooting at a house and seriously injuring a young woman, has said she’s not happy about how people are talking about Sheehan online.
Gavin Sheehan, aged 30, of Laurel Ridge Estate, Shanakiel, Co Cork was sentenced to 14 years in prison after shooting at a house in May 2016 where 21-year-old Ciara Sheehan (no relation) was hit in the neck.
The woman survived the attack, but has expressed in court that she’s traumatised by the incident. It’s also been reported that Gavin Sheehan’s parents have been threatened.
In an interview with PJ Coogan’s Opinion Line on Cork’s 96FM, Sheehan’s girlfriend Megan told the show that she knew what her boyfriend did was wrong, but that she thinks “it should be let go” threats are being made online and he’s serving his sentence.
There was threats made [online], I admit I did make a threat because my baby is only 10 months old and my boyfriend is after getting a 14-year jail sentence.
The presenter Coogan said that he’d spoken to Ciara’s mom, who told him some of the things Megan and others been posting on Facebook about Ciara.
Oh I know that’s not fair I admitted it myself, I should’ve just let the people say what they wanted to say about Gavin, leave them to comment themselves, but it’s the fact that they made him out to be worse than what he actually is.
“Now I know nobody should have been shot, nobody deserves to be shot that as a disgrace, my heart goes out to the girl. Gav mightn’t have shown remorse but I do show remorse. All I want to do is get on with my life.”
(Megan was referring to a comment made during Sheehan’s trial, where it was said that he showed no remorse for his crime.)
Megan then said that although she would be the exact same as Ciara’s mother if her baby had been shot, that “there are two sides to every story and Gavin’s parents are very sick and very worried about their safety and their lives”.
“I’m after being threatened myself on Facebook, I’m after getting onto the guards about it.
We shouldn’t be attacked because of that – that’s nothing to do with us. We didn’t make anyone do anything.
Facebook’s influence
When asked why she thought people were being vicious, she said that the reason was because a national broadcasting reporter had posted the story to Facebook.
I think it’s all because of that day when it went on Facebook straight away. That’s one thing I actually asked [the reporter] not to do was to put it up on Facebook and he went away and did that.
I knew if it went up on Facebook that it’d escalate and people all over the world would be commenting, which is actually what is happening.
She said that he’s the only reporter to have posted the story to Facebook and that none of the other outlets have it up.
The journalist was then threatened by commenters, Megan says, because he seemed to be ‘posting the worst about it’.
“I really am sorry for what I said, I shouldn’t have said it. All I was thinking about was my baby and if she’d ever see her dad again, that’s all I was worried about. I apologise.”
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