A judge has accused a pensioner of using the fact he is hard of hearing to avoid being sentenced for sexually assaulting a man in his 80s on a bus.
The sex assault on a Bus Éireann service in Co Clare happened last June and was videoed by a third party using a smartphone.
Judge Patrick Durcan last month acceded to a defence application to have a Probation Report carried out in the case on the accused and adjourned the case.
However, at Kilrush District Court on Tuesday the judge expressed his frustration that the 70-year-old accused was using his hearing difficulties to not engage with the Probation Service.
“This is an not an excuse. If someone is deaf, blind or dumb there are still methods of communication. This man is simply trying to avoid dealing with the sentencing,” he said.
The judge told the man’s solicitor, Patrick Moylan, that the guilty plea “didn’t emerge out of thin air, it emerged out of lengthy consultation and he was able to consult with you or your colleagues”.
‘Can’t hear a thing’
Mr Moylan said his client “can’t hear a thing” and he had to write words on a pad for his client in court to inform him of what the judge was saying.
“This is a serious case of the two men travelling on the bus. Both are elderly and one man puts his hand down in a rather forceful and encompassing way on the private parts of the other man.”
Mr Moylan said that his client had “never been in trouble before anytime in his life”.
“It is the embarrassment of this and I know there is embarrassment of the victim here as well judge – there is absolutely an appreciation of that. But in his 70 years, he has never been in difficulty – he is now in difficulty.”
Insp Tom Kennedy handed a victim impact statement into court and in response to the first line of the statement – which was not disclosed to court – the judge said he would deal with the case as sensitively as he could.
He adjourned the case to June 19th and ordered that the accused speak to the Probation Officer before leaving court.
In the case, the accused has pleaded guilty to sexually assaulting his victim at an unknown location between Kilrush and Lissycasey last June.
The alleged sex assault offence contrary to section 2 of the Criminal Law Rape Amendment Act is alleged to have taken place at about 5.15pm on June 9th last.
