Police working to identify person responsible for unauthorised use of MEP's Twitter account

MEP Luke 'Ming' Flanagan has said the police have provided him with a Belgian IP address associated with the unauthorised use of his Twitter account earlier this week at a time when he was in Ireland.

In a statement this lunchtime, Flanagan said: “They are now working with me to establish the exact location and identity of the individual who has carried out this malicious act of vandalism on my good name.”

The investigation follows on from the posting and deleting of a tweet "Sapirse mchugh photo skinny dipping (sp)" on the MEP's Twitter account in early hours of Monday morning last.

Flanagan subsequently explained that his account had been compromised.

This lunchtime, he said the The Directorate-General for Security and Safety of the European Parliament (DG SAFE) are assisting him with a police investigation into the unauthorised use of his Twitter account which took place from a location in Belgium.

“I have now established that my Twitter account had been logged into on a third party app called Tweetcaster. This app allowed an individual to tweet from my account using an old password. This app was used twice to access my Twitter account from Belgium on September 28th. The same day that an unauthorised tweet was posted and then deleted from my account.

“At the time the tweet was posted and then deleted I was in Ireland and have been since March of this year due to Covid 19 restrictions.

“The police have been provided with the Belgian IP address associated with the use of my account on the Tweetcaster app on that day.  They are now working with me to establish the exact location and identity of the individual who has carried out this malicious act of vandalism on my good name.”