Convicted rapist pleads guilty to harassment of three female Sunday World journalists

Niamh O’Donoghue

A convicted rapist has pleaded guilty to the harassment of three female Sunday World journalists.

Mark McAnaw (52) appeared at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court on Wednesday where he was arraigned on three counts of harassment.

McAnaw of no fixed abode and previously of Letterkenny, Co Donegal, pleaded guilty to the harassment of Nicola Tallant, Amanda Brunker and Deirdre Reynolds on various dates in August 2023.

Judge Martin Nolan ordered the preparation of victim impact statements. McAnaw was remanded in continuing custody for sentence on March 7th next.

McAnaw has a number of previous convictions and was jailed for nine years for raping a foreign student in Donegal in October 2010. He was convicted by a jury in 2012 of orally raping and sexually assaulting the student.

McAnaw also has a 1989 conviction for kidnapping and convictions for assaults causing actual bodily harm from a Londonderry court in 2011.

He also attacked a woman in her home days after they had gone on a date together in April 2018.  In this incident, he was armed with a large kitchen knife when he forced his way into a woman’s home.

McAnaw received an eight-year and four month sentence for this in June 2023, backdated to 2018 when he went into custody. The final 16 months of this sentence were suspended for 16 years with McAnaw placed under the supervision of the Probation Services.