Barman will have sex assault case struck out if he pays victim €1.5k

An off-duty barman who sexually assaulted a 33-year-old woman while she was having a drink with her mother and her family will receive a strike-out if he pays €1,500 compensation to his victim.

Judge Bridget Reilly heard that the man had been out at the Leopardstown Races before the incident and had been drinking since noon that day.

Judge Reilly reminded the members of the press present in Tallaght Court that there were reporting restrictions in the case.

The 30-year-old man, with an address in South Dublin, had pleaded guilty to sexually assaulting a named female at a pub in South Dublin on December 27, 2013.

A solicitor for the DPP told the court the DPP had directed summary disposal

Judge Reilly had previously accepted jurisdiction

Sgt Bernard Jones said that on December 27, the injured party had been socialising in the pub with her mother and her family and friends when she felt a hand go up her “bum” and through her legs.

She turned around and saw four men laughing behind her. Sgt Jones said the woman contacted bar staff who called the gardaí. When the gardaí arrived, the four men had been ejected from the pub and were walking to a nearby village. The woman, who was aged 33, went with the gardaí and identified the defendant.

The man’s solicitor put it to Sgt Jones that there was no mention of the four men laughing in the victim’s statement. Sgt Jones explained that it was in the precis and not in the victim’s statement.

He said the man had no previous convictions.

The solicitor said his client had been “fairly frank” when questioned in the Garda station. He added: “A lot of the incident he could not remember.”

The solicitor said his client had been asked why he had done what he did and he replied: “I don’t know what was going through my mind.”

He said the gardaí asked his client if he had anything to say to the injured party and he replied: “I’m sorry.”

The solicitor said his client had been at the races and had been drinking since noon that day and had been asked by the gardaí on a scale of one to 10 how drunk he had been on the day and he said it had been a nine. He said his client had worked in one pub for 10 years and this pub was in the same group as the pub in the offence. He said the man had felt obliged to stop working for the pub and moved to another job.

He said the man is engaged and had told his fiancée about the incident.

Judge Reilly commented that the man had a previously unblemished character. She said that “people are entitled to be in a bar and not to be interfered with in any way”.

She put the case back to a date in November for payment of €1,500 compensation to the injured party and if the money is paid, she will strike the case out.