Garda jailed for two years for sexual assault on sleeping female

A SERVING member of An Garda Siochana was sentenced today to two years in prison for what a judge described as “an opportunist and repellent sexual assault on a sleeping female”.

Imposing sentence at Castlebar Circuit Criminal Court, Judge Rory MacCabe described the fact that the defendant will lose his job as a significant penalty but added “people have to accept the natural consequences of their actions.”

The judge refused a request by defence counsel, Mr. Ken Fogarty, for a suspended prison term.

Earlier Mr. Fogarty told Judge MacCabe that the defendant, who cannot be named for legal reasons, has already been served with dismissal papers by the Garda Commissioner.

The defendant who has served in both metropolitan and rural areas was decorated with a silver medal for bravery after saving a youngster from drowning, Mr. Fogarty explained.

Earlier this year, the defendant, a married man with children, went on trial at the Circuit Criminal Court charged with sexually assaulting a woman after getting into her bed in a hotel room in the west of Ireland.

As the trial was about enter its final stages, the accused changed his plea to guilty on a single count of sexual assault contrary to Section 2 of the Criminal Law Amendment Act, 1990.

Richard Gaughan of the Garda Ombudsman Commission, which investigated the complaint, told today's court the woman's husband ordered the defendant from the room after finding him in bed. The victim was 'dazed' at the time.

Defence counsel Mr. Fogarty said his client had made a drunken decision on the night in the apartment and had asked him to convey to the victims his profound sorrow and remorse for what happened.

When asked by Mr. Fogarty to suspend the prison sentence, the judge said there was no reason to suspend because the defendant is not viewed as an ongoing risk.