Paramedic weeps after acquittal

A paramedic wept in court yesterday as he was cleared of the sexual assault of a Civil Defence volunteer in the back of an ambulance.

A jury at Ennis Circuit Court also found the 34-year-old Co Clare man not guilty of the sexual assault of the woman after two First Aid classes he gave to Civil Defence volunteers at a Co Clare school in 2010.

The 24-year-old complainant in the case left the court in tears accompanied by her mother and two gardaí.

The jury delivered its unanimous verdict after deliberating for just under two hours. The paramedic wiped tears from his eyes as Judge Gerald Keys told him: “You are free to go.”

In Garda interviews, the man described as “malicious lies” the allegations made against him by the woman.

In an earlier interview with gardaí, the man denied all allegations including choking the woman in the ambulance in February 2013. “There is no substance to these allegations,” he said.

In the case, the jury found him not guilty that he sexually assaulted the woman on dates unknown between April and May at a Co Clare secondary school, and again on February 10, 2013, in an ambulance in a townland in Co Clare.

Mark Nicholas, defending, told the jury in his closing speech that his client denied all allegations, had never been in trouble before in his life and had no previous convictions.

He said that his client had been suspended for two years from his post as the investigation and prosecution case continued.