A Garda sergeant has been spared a custodial sentence but was fined €2,000 today after he was found guilty of groping a female colleague twice at a Dublin garda station.
The veteran officer, who had an “unblemished record”, could now face the sack and lose his pension, after a 28-year career which has been left in ruins.
He was convicted at Dublin District Court on two counts of sexually assaulting the young woman, on dates in March and June 2010. He had already been fined €1,000 earlier this week for a separate sexual assault on another female colleague.
The woman had said the first incident happened when she was leaning over to use a computer. The sergeant stood behind her, then put his arms around her waist and pushed his pelvic area against her bottom and said “she likes it this way”.
“I froze, I then just walked out,” she had said adding that she felt embarrassed and dirty, and “terrified of him”.
She also said that on a date in June 2010, she had been on duty reading files and going through paperwork. “He came over and put his hand to my left breast and said ‘wake up there’,” she said, “I replied ‘I am not asleep’.”
Two of her colleagues, who were present during the first incident, had told Judge Bridget Reilly that they were shocked by the sergeant’s actions. One said the sergeant was pushing his lower groin area into the woman’s bottom and “was gaining momentum as he was doing it”. It lasted ten or 15 seconds and afterwards the female garda was mortified and clearly upset, the witness had said.
Another garda also saw it happen and said the sergeant “thrust his mid-section to groin area against her hip/bottom area and said something along the lines of ‘do you like it like that?’”.
In evidence, the 49-year-old sergeant had denied sexually assaulting the woman and claimed he had been trying to get past her.
“I placed my hands on her hips to move her slightly so I could get past her. In squeezing past her, my groin area came into contact with her buttock,” he had told the court. He said it was an “awkward moment” and “to try and lighten it I made a comment ‘do you like that?’”.
He described the contact between him and his colleague as accidental. He had also said he did not intend to humiliate or hurt her.
He claimed that during the second incident he had been tidying an office in the station. He thought the victim was asleep or in deep contemplation and he tapped her on her rib-cage, “to wake her out of her position, to make her more alert”.
However, Judge Reilly held that the touching was deliberate and had found him guilty on both counts.
Today, she said the first incident would cause a feeling of “revulsion”. “If anyone cannot understand, they might ponder the question, what would you feel if your daughter came home and said this is what my superior did to me today.”
The second incident, she said, was at the lower end of the scale, but she noted that it occurred two and a half months later.
She was mindful of the serious consequences this would have on the sergeant’s career and reputation. The judge held that a custodial sentence was not appropriate and fined him €1,000 for each offence. He has five months to pay the fines or else faces 30-day prison sentences.
Defence counsel Mr Breffni Gordon had said the sergeant, was a family man, with a long unblemished career as a garda.
Mr Gordon had said the convictions would mean the man would not be able to continue his service and could lose his pension when he was on the cusp of retirement.