Seven years for deaf man who assaulted partner's friend

A deaf man who sexually assaulted his partner's friend after a New Year's Eve party in the couple's home has been given a seven-year prison sentence by Judge Frank O'Donnell at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court.

David Walsh (aged 33), of no fixed abode, was convicted by a jury of sexually assaulting the 43-year-old woman, who is also deaf, in his young son's bedroom on January 1, 2004. Walsh's partner did not hear the victim's screams as she was also deaf.