Wheelchair user is put on sex offenders register
By Brendan Grehan
A WHEELCHAIR user who sexually assaulted a schoolgirl and exposed himself on a Dublin Bus has been sentenced to five months jail.
James Callaghan has also been put on the sex offenders register.
Callaghan, aged 54, with an address at Decies Road, Ballyfermot, had pleaded not guilty to sexually assaulting a named female on a Dublin Bus on the Neilstown Road on February 1, 2016. Callaghan had been found guilty after a trial.
He was before Judge David McHugh in Blanchardstown District Court for sentencing.
The victim (18) had told the court she saw Callaghan struggling to get on the vehicle so offered to help him and wheeled him to the disabled space.
She said Callaghan had gestured for her to sit in the fold-down chair opposite so she did, thinking it was “harmless”.
They talked and it “started getting personal” as he asked her to go with him when he got off the bus.
He told her she was “gorgeous”. She began to feel uncomfortable and looked away before he again put his hand on her hip.
This time she tried to “scoot away” but noticed his hand was going “down on to my a**e”, she said.
After a few minutes she noticed he was “messing with himself” where there was a belt for his wheelchair.
She asked if he needed to go to the toilet and when he said he did, she told him there was a pub at the next stop.
She had told the court: “I noticed his d**k was out and at that stage I got frightened. His penis was in his hand, he was trying to get me to touch it, trying to put it towards me.”
She jumped up to tell the driver and said she wanted to get off the bus.
The victim said she felt “violated” after the assault.
Callaghan’s counsel, Jennifer Jackson Bl, said her client suffered a brain injury in a road crash when he was 31.
She said Callaghan would benefit from working with the probation service so he could receive treatment and ensure similar behaviour did not happen again.
Judge McHugh proposed adjourning the case for a year to allow Callaghan to work with the probation service, but the defendant said he would prefer to be sentenced immediately.
Imposing a five-month sentence, the judge also ordered that he be put on the sex offenders’ register.
TAGS Courts
