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Wexford charity committee resigns claiming fake porn images of Director are being shared online

Committee say there had been persistent ‘online slander’ from people who had set up fake profiles

Wexford People Helping People founder Claire Malone who is stepping down as a Director of the charity.

Pádraig Byrne
© Wexford People

The committee of charity Wexford People Helping People (WPHP) has decided to step down.

Over the past eight years, the charity has worked towards helping families that are struggling to make ends meet, people who have fallen into homelessness, those struggling with their mental health and those facing a whole host of housing issues.

However Director and founder of the charity Claire Malone has felt that their work and reputation has been under attack recently.

Things have come to a head this week with the announcement that the committee, including the founder Ms Malone, would be stepping down, claiming “slander”, fake profiles, and even photoshopped pornographic images of the director being shared to a BDSM website.

“The charity regulator was satisfied that we were and are compliant within the charity law,” Ms Malone said in a WPHP statement.

But in recent months WPHP said that there had been persistent “online slander” from individuals who had allegedly set up fake profiles to "post comments online and slander the charity”.

The situation was said to be “incredibly stressful" and “detrimental to the mental health and at times physical health of our committee members”.

"These issues are of a personal nature, but the charity has become the chosen target,” the statement continued.

The committee, consisting of Claire Malone, Lorraine Foley, Bridget Cummins, Carol Gray, Ciara O’Farrell and Kenny Murphy, has reportedly sought legal advice on these matters and reported certain actions to gardaí.

"The Director has also had a fake profile set up on a BDSM site with pornographic photoshopped images – with her head being placed on other bodies," the statement continued.

"Her personal information was doxxed on this site along with several other serious incidents.”

With all of this unrest rumbling on in the background, the committee has now decided the only prudent action is to stand aside.

"We have made this decision to protect the charity and the service users that are benefitting from the mental health café service that we offer,” they said.

Ms Malone will be replaced as Director of WPHP by local bookshop owner Wally O’Neill of Red Books. The current trustees – Carol Gray, Kenny Murphy, Lorraine Foley and Claire Malone – are set to be removed once Mr O’Neill appoints new trustees, although it’s envisaged that Carol Gray will remain to help Mr O’Neill with the transition.

The charity confirmed: “We will no longer be providing advocacy clinics or homeless services. This will all be outsourced

“All donations of rough sleeping equipment will be given to Wexford Homeless Housing Action Group along with any physical items that further their soup kitchen cause.”

The final remaining WPHP shop, Barrack Street Bikes, will close by March and the new base for the charity will be Red Books in St Peter's Square.

All counselling will continue for service users and new referrals will also be supported.

“We have loved being immersed in the community,” the charity’s statement continued. “And we would have loved to continue to provide the services that we have free of charge to all who need it. But the reality is as long as the current committee remain in place the charity will remain a target.

"We are at a crossroads now where we have to decide what is best for its future.”

“This was never built for personal recognition or ego. It was built because at a point that the Director ended up homeless - it was strangers that came forward to help. We could see the lack of supports within the community and wanted to make sure that nobody else ever felt so alone.

"We have been burnt out constantly looking over our shoulder for the next lot of drama - it was never too far away. It is no longer beneficial to our wellbeing to be running under the threat of attack while we are providing a service voluntarily and our own families and relationships are suffering because of it.”

The outgoing committee expressed its gratitude to Wally O’Neill for taking the reins, pledging their full support to him in terms of fundraising etc going forward. They stressed that Wexford People Helping People will continue to operate, just under new management.

They also wished to sincerely thank everyone who had supported them over the past eight years.