Man to be sentenced for sexual assault on teen girl
A 25-year-old man was convicted by a jury last week of sexually assaulting an underage girl in a room over a pub while celebrating his 21st birthday four years ago.
Kevin Corcoran, 68 The Glade, Athenry, had denied a charge of sexually assaulting the then 16-year-old girl by digitally penetrating her, during his 21st birthday celebrations which took place in a pub in East Galway on November 22, 2015.
A jury of four women and eight men took just two hours and 45 minutes to reach a majority verdict of 10-2, finding him guilty of the offence following a three-day trial at Galway Circuit Criminal Court last week.
The name of the pub or town where it is situated cannot be published in order to protect the identity of the victim.
The court heard she had been drinking and socialising with male friends in the pub when her group encountered Corcoran and a group of his friends who were celebrating his 21st birthday.
His group were renting two rooms upstairs for the night and she and some of her friends joined the party upstairs in the early hours.
The said girl had left the bar area around 4am after being asked to go home by a barman. She told jurors she met Corcoran outside on the street while on her way home. He invited her back into the party and she agreed to go back with him.
Once upstairs again, she said he pushed her down on a bed in one of the rooms while his and her friends were partying in a room across the hall, and sexually assaulted her.
She said he first took her phone off her before the assault took place.
He threw her phone back to her afterwards and she left the premises distraught and went home.
She told her mother shortly afterwards. Her mother went to work that day but later that night took her daughter to the Garda Station and from there to the sexual assault unit in Galway.
Dr Lorna Flanagan from the Forensic Science Laboratory gave evidence that there was insufficient DNA evidence found on the girl’s jeans and underwear to link Corcoran to the allegation of digital penetration.
She noted the button had been ripped off the girl’s jeans and the zip broken, which could suggest the jeans had been pulled off her with force.
Forensic medical examiner, Dr Joanne Freeman, gave evidence she medically examined the girl at the sexual assault unit and concluded there were injuries consistent with the allegation of digital penetration.
Corcoran declined to give evidence at the trial.
He will be sentenced on December 11 next.