Andrew O’Donovan of Butlersgift, Drimoleague, County Cork, was given an 18-month suspended jail term for sexual assault — his first criminal conviction of any kind.

A 62-year-old man will face trial by judge and jury on a charge of sexually assaulting a 17-year-old girl in a hospital ward in the early hours of the morning.

A six-year jail term was imposed on a 21-year-old man who sexually assaulted a 16-year-old girl in a car, parked in a field, and then dumped her on the side of the road in a state of undress.

A restaurateur who was chased around his premises in Cork by a man armed with a broken bottle had to pick up a chair and part of a vacuum cleaner to fend off the attacker, who was jailed yesterday.

A 16-year-old Cork girl became hysterical after she was dragged unconscious and in a state of undress from a car after a sex attack, and left on the side of the street.