MEP Ming Flanagan reports hacking of Twitter account to Belgian police

Earlier this week Mr Flanagan said that he believed his Twitter was compromised after it posted a late-night comment about naked photographs of former Green Party candidate Saoirse McHugh.

A Tweet from the account posted at 2:50am on Monday read "Sapirse mchugh photo skinny dipping".

The post was later deleted but screengrabs of the comment were shared by other Twitter users.

The comment may be a reference to photos of Ms McHugh swimming that previously appeared in The Guardian newspaper.

Mr Flanagan posted on Twitter that he changed his password and he was contacting Twitter to establish what happened adding: "Some nasty people out there. Mind yourselves".

In a statement today Ireland North-West MEP Mr Flanagan said that the European Parliament's Directorate-General for Security and Safety (DG SAFE) is assisting him with a police investigation "into the unauthorised use of my Twitter account which took place from a location in Belgium."

He said his Parliamentary assistant and an investigator from DG SAFE met Belgian Police on Wednesday.

Mr Flanagan said: "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."

He said that at the time the Tweet was posted and deleted he was in Ireland as he has been since March due to Covid-19 restrictions.

His statement added: "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."

On Tuesday Ms McHugh told the Indepedendent.ie that Mr Flanagan had contacted her to tell her about the situation.

She wasn't aware of the Tweet before he contacted her.

The former Green Party candidate said she accepted Mr Flanagan's explanation.

She said: "I believe him and I don't think there's anything more to say about it."

Mr Flanagan is a close political ally of Ms McHugh and campaigned for her in the general election. She was unsuccessful in the last European and General Election.

A European Parliament spokesperson said it doesn't comment on security matters related to MEPs.

A statement said: "In general, [the] Parliament's security and IT services are of course there to assist the Members and liaise with national police services when needed."