A man who sexually assaulted a schoolgirl as she was working alone in a country shop and later accosted her as she walked home has been put on probation for a year.
John Ring (47), Dunbeag, Castlebar, Co Mayo, initially pleaded not guilty at Galway Circuit Court to sexually assaulting the student (17) on July 22nd, 2014. He also denied harassing the girl later that day. He subsequently changed his plea to guilty of sexual assault.
Garda Tom Doyle told the sentence hearing the girl had a summer job in a neighbour’s shop and was left alone at lunchtime to run the premises.
Ring came in around 1.45pm and asked her for cigarettes. As the girl checked the display for the particular brand, Ring asked if she had a boyfriend and if she ever suffered from a sore back. She told Ring she did not and also that she did not have the cigarettes requested.
He left the shop but returned soon afterwards and called the girl down to the back of the shop which was empty at the time, on the pretext he was looking for something from the off licence. He told the girl he was a physiotherapist before pinning her in the corner.
The court heard he put his hands either side of her neck, put his knee between her legs and told her to spread them while moving one hand inside her blouse.
The girl told gardaí that Ring held her against her will, pushed his groin against her and that she knew he was aroused. Ring let the girl go when a customer came into the shop, telling her: “Well, you aren’t shy.”
The girl said Ring came back into the shop later and stared at her before leaving when customers arrived.
The girl walked home for lunch after 2pm and Ring passed by in his van, turned around and came back up the road, blocking her path. He beckoned her over to the driver’s window but she refused to go near him. He scribbled his mobile number on a piece of paper and gave it to the girl and invited her to call him.
Contacted gardaí
The girl told her mother what happened when she got home. Her mother told the girl’s employer and gardaí were contacted when Ring came back into the shop that evening. He was seen winking and sticking his tongue out at the girl.
Defence barrister Eoin Garvan said Ring has a 15-year-old daughter and an ex-partner, who no longer speak to him.
“His parents were alcoholics and there was inappropriate contact with a neighbour between the age of four and nine and that has stayed with him.”
Judge Rory McCabe said this had been a very sinister incident. He said the offence merited a four-year sentence but Ring had “a complex and troubled background” and a low risk of reoffending.
Mr McCabe placed Ring on probation for 12 months and said the length of the sentence he would serve after that would depend on his willingness to engage with the probation service in the interim.