Man exposes himself during online vigil for Ashling Murphy
almost 4 years in The Irish Times
A man attempted to disrupt an online vigil held for Ashling Murphy, who was killed in Tullamore, Co Offaly, last week, by exposing himself and appearing to masturbate on camera.
The online vigil was organised on the Zoom video call platform, and attended by around 90 women on Sunday evening.
During the event, a man joined the Zoom call, falsely using the name of one of the event’s organisers, through a link to the event which was posted on social media.
On the video call the man exposed himself and appeared to masturbate for several minutes, before he was removed from the online event, one attendee said.
The man, whose face was not visible on his camera, then attempted to re-join the Zoom call several times, and was quickly removed again each time.
The virtual event was organised for people who were at high-risk from Covid-19 infection and others unable to attend in-person vigils.
Several women gave speeches at the event, including singer Emma Langford, Traveller activist Rose Marie Maughan, and poet Kathy D’Arcy.
The organisers reported the incident to Zoom, requesting information from the video call platform about the account used by the man.
A number of women who attended the virtual event are also planning to report the matter to An Garda Síochána.
Scores of vigils have been held across Ireland, and a number of other cities around the world, following the killing of Ms Murphy, a 23-year-old teacher, who was killed while jogging along a canal bank in Tullamore last Wednesday.