A door to door broadband salesman who was jailed for seven months in June for carrying out a sexual assault on a disabled Co Clare woman in her 50s in her own home has escaped jail on appeal.
This follows Judge Gerald Keys at Ennis Circuit Court setting aside the seven month jail term imposed by Judge Patrick Durcan in the district court on the 26 year and instead imposing a nine month suspended jail sentence.
The accused has been on bail pending his appeal and Judge Keys said that the man already has a severe sanction placed on him as he will be on the sex offenders’ register for 10 years.
In terms of the gravity of the offence, Judge Keys said that it was below mid-level on the spectrum. The judge said that the man abused his position as a salesman.
Judge Keys said that in suspending the jail-term, “I am not ignoring the effect on the victim”.
In her victim impact statement, the woman – who sometimes uses a walking aid and a wheelchair – said: “I have always kept my front door unlocked…I no longer feel secure in my own home. Things will never be the same again…I have only now started to heal on the inside.”
Judge Keys said that the man had pleaded guilty, has shown remorse, co-operated with the Gardai and has no previous convictions.
In the case, the man pleaded guilty to the sexual assault of the woman at her home in Co Clare on September 5th last and was appealing against severity only.
The man accepted that he put his arms around the woman, hugged her and rubbed her back but denied putting his hand down her trousers outside her underwear.
Solicitor for the man, Daragh Hassett said he “made a huge error of judgement and it is something he will regret for the rest of his life”.
The accused wasn’t aware of the woman’s vulnerability in relation to her disability.
Mr Hassett said: “He put his hand on her back and he shouldn’t have done so and as soon as he did he withdrew his hand.”
Mr Hassett said that his client “has utter disgust for his behaviour and has sincere regret at what he visited on this lady and her family”.
Mr Hassett said that his client being placed on the sex offenders’ register “is more than a cloud or a shadow that follows this man around. It is an order of the court that will severely restrict this man’s travel and career.”
Mr Hassett said: “He doesn’t know what happened on the day. There was a certain amount of pressure in relation to sales and commission and non-commission.”
Mr Hassett said his ‘highly educated’ client – who is a non-Irish national – lost his job with the broadband supplier as a result of what occurred and he has.
