A Cork medical school dropout who sent threatening letters to ten of his past supervisors and tutors at the Royal College of Surgeons has been given a three year suspended sentence.

Colin Joyce (34) was angry that the college had refused him re-admission to allow him to complete his medical degree after he had attempted, over the course of four years, to complete his fourth year.

He ultimately left himself due to mental health difficulties in 2007.

In 2012 Joyce started to contact a number of doctors, professors and staff by letter and threatened the recipients that he would release confidential information regarding 1,300 patients and have their details posted on the Wikipedia website.

Joyce included personal information about the doctors themselves in each letter. He told one that he was sorry to hear that her sister had died recently of ovarian cancer and he had information about another man’s wife and children, which the man found alarming.

He wrote that he felt there was a conspiracy against him and said he was working with “others abroad” so even if he were to be “locked up” the information would still be released.

Joyce at times demanded amounts of cash while other letters insisted on his re-admittance into the college and regularly threatened to release this confidential information.

He said he knew “heavy individuals” around Dublin and had “a friendship” with the Taliban and that he would get local paramilitaries to put together a bomb.

He claimed he had the power to bring about the closure of the RCSI.

Joyce of The Kingsley, Carrigrohane Road, Cork, pleaded guilty at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court to ten sample counts of posting a letter, enclosing a grossly, offensive and menacing article to various doctors on dates between June 25 and October 8, 2012.

He has no previous convictions.

Mícheál O’Higgins SC, defending, said his client was a psychotically vulnerable man who was experiencing emotional turmoil and had chronic intense feelings of anger and bitterness.

He told the court that his client was frustrated about his perceived mistreatment by RCSI.

He said Joyce had an autism spectrum disorder and had persecution delusions that people were intent on making sure he didn’t complete his medical degree.

Judge Martin Nolan said Joyce had “worrying characteristics” and that he was adamant that the way he was dealt with by RCSI was “ultimately wrong”. The judge said Joyce was finding it difficult to understand that he must move on.

He said it was unusual to see a psychological report before the court where “insight isn’t manifest” and said that Joyce does “not have insight into his behaviour”.

“He has a deep-seated belief in his own rightness,” Judge Nolan said before he added that he was aware of Joyce’s condition and said he was sorry that he has “that burden to carry”.

Judge Nolan said his “overriding purpose” in sentencing was to “protect innocent people” and that he had concluded that Joyce was not going to start the campaign again.

He sentenced him to three years in prison which he suspended in full on condition that he undergo probation supervision for 12 months and not enter the RCSI, or approach or contact any of its staff in anyway.

Garda Francis Chaney told Lorcan Staines BL, defending, that many of the doctors realised it was Joyce that had written the letters and in some Joyce had enclosed his own thesis.

Gardaí secured a warrant to search his home in Cork and Joyce was fully co-operative and handed over his laptop.

They also found an axe, lump hammer, mallet and bags of rocks, which Joyce said he had to protect himself from vigilantes.

Joyce told gardaí he was expecting paramilitaries because he had been making false claims about them.

The gardaí also found one letter which contained maps where the addresses of three of the doctors were highlighted, Joyce told gardaí: “These people have to understand that I am not going to attack them”.

Gda Chaney confirmed that there has been no further harassment of RCSI staff.

The court heard that Joyce was at student at RCSI between 1999 and 2007. He initially completed first, second and third year successfully but left in 2003 due to the heavy workload.

He then received psychological intervention to deal with alcohol abuse, obsessive compulsive disorder and depression before he returned in 2005 in an effort to complete fourth year.

He had had to repeat fourth year and did this in 2007 but he left permanently that year due to health difficulties. He later secured a degree in physiology in University College Cork.

In one letter Joyce demanded that €20,000 be paid over to him in instalments to prevent the information being posted, while in another he said he was suing the recipient for making false accusations.

Joyce wrote that he would get local paramilitaries to put together a bomb and in another letter wrote he would donate his own body to the anatomy department.

He told others that he didn’t spend eight years in the RSCI to “beg on the streets”.