Man, 79, denies grabbing woman’s breast in lift

A 79-year-old man, never in trouble in his life, denied grabbing a young woman’s breast in a lift at Blarney Woollen Mills. And he told a court: “If it was to free Ireland, I would not do it at all, ever.”

Andrew O’Callaghan of Gurrane South, Donoughmore, Co Cork, told Cork District Court he was on his way to the upper floor of the store to buy socks and nothing untoward happened.

Widowed for the past four years, he told his solicitor Frank Buttimer how he reacted to the allegation of sexual assault. “I did not take it serious, not an iota of it, I never touched the girl,” he said.