Irish police are investigating an incident of indecent exposure during an online vigil for murdered schoolteacher Ashling Murphy last week.
Gardaí have urged participants who witnessed the incident to report their experience to their local garda station or to the Cork West Divisional Protective Services Unit.
The all-woman online vigil took place on Zoom on January 16, four days after Ashling Murphy, 23, was murdered while going for a run in broad daylight along a stretch of the Grand Canal in Tullamore.
The meeting was hijacked by a "disgusting" man who turned on his screen and showed himself masturbating, according to several women who attended the vigil.
The organizer of the vigil reported the incident to gardaí in Clonakilty the day after the event took place, according to Sergeant Eimear O'Connell.
O'Connell said that the organizer told gardaí that the man used a link to access the meeting before exposing himself during the vigil.
O'Connell told Cork's 103FM that the incident must have been "frightening" for anyone present at the meeting, while it also caused "great offense" for everyone in attendance.
"If anyone wants to make a report or complaint, they can contact their local Garda station who will send on their details to the West Cork Protective Services Unit and they will follow up on this. They will take complaints from anyone who was on the Zoom meeting and found the material offensive," O'Connell told 103FM.
"Please make contact. Someone may have information that would help the investigation," she added.
Cork woman Evie Nevin organized the vigil for women who could not attend one of the many in-person vigils held for Ashling Murphy last weekend.
She said that attendees were upset because the incident meant that they were unable to have a safe space where they could discuss their concerns about the murder of Ashling Murphy.
Nevin condemned the incident in a post on Twitter shortly after the event.
"The fact that this vigil is now being talked about because of this man and not because the speakers, poetry and music were beautiful makes me absolutely sick to my stomach," Nevin said on Twitter.
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