A man convicted last year for attempting to pay for sexual services in the first case of its kind in Northern Ireland has been jailed for three months.
James Maloney (24), of Drumarg Villas, Armagh, had appealed the landmark conviction last October but Judge Fowler QC ruled there was “overwhelming evidence” against him.
Affirming the original sentence on Friday, Judge Fowler told Maloney it was his view that “this was a blatant attempt to proposition sexually a vulnerable victim who was simply carrying out an honest day’s work and should never have been sujected to this humiliation and degradation”.
The judge added: “Taking also into account the persistence of his approach to the victim, I consider the defendant’s culpability to be high.”
Judge Fowler said Maloney was twice caught on CCTV offering to pay a frightened attendent for sex at a Sainsbury filling station at the Oak Centre in Dungannon on the morning of August 28th, 2016.
Groin
She was cleaning the forecourt when Maloney approached in his car and showed her a wad of cash. He opened his trousers and gestured to his groin and mouth suggesting he wanted her to perform oral sex.
Maloney was told to go but again approached the woman and repeated his offer. The attendant then noticed a man she knew and called to him.
When convicted at Dungannon Magistrates Court last June, District Judge John Meehan described Maloney’s behaviour as “abhorrent, predatory sexualised stalking of a woman, with the offer of money to satisfy his egotism”.
“This is the first prosecution of its kind in Northern Ireland. This wasn’t a case of a man caught out trying to approach a sex worker. This as a man who deliberately targeted an isolated woman in a predatory fashion, by virtue of the fact she was a woman.”
In addition to his three-month sentence, Maloney was also orderred to pay the victim £500 compensation.