Woman’s bum prodded with pencil

A young woman had her buttocks prodded with a pencil when she bent over at the beauty counter where she worked and when she looked around she saw the man who did it laughing at her.

Judge Olann Kelleher said that while the young woman was not physically injured this was a serious assault to the extent that it caused a lot of upset for the young woman.

John Long, aged 31, of Cork Simon Community pleaded guilty to assaulting the woman on July 10, 2017 at Debenham’s on St Patrick’s Street. Judge Kelleher jailed him for four months for the assault yesterday at Cork District Court.

Inspector John Deasy said the victim was contacted by gardaí following Long’s plea of guilty and she was given the option of appearing in court or writing a victim impact statement and she did not want to do either.

Insp Deasy said the young woman was working in the store at 4.30pm on that particular day. She was dealing with a customer and bent down to get a product under the countertop. As she did so she felt that she had been poked in the buttocks, the inspector said.

She was not physically hurt but she was very upset by the incident. Mr Long put the pencil in her mouth and laughed at her and walked away, the inspector said.

Long had 100 previous convictions including six counts of assault and three for assault causing harm.

Frank Buttimer, solicitor, said there was an acknowledgment on the part of the defendant that what he did was wrong: “He has asked me repeatedly to say he was highly apologetic. It was an act of gross stupidity on the part of the defendant. He accepts it was highly upsetting for the injured party.”