Former Celtic and Derry City footballer Patrick McCourt has been given a three month suspended sentence at Derry Magistrates’ Court for what a judge described as “a moment of madness”.
The 39-year-old, of Wheatfield Court, Muff, Co Donegal, was convicted in May of one count of sexual assault that occurred on January 30th last year.
Passing sentence, District Judge Ted Magill said the victim was touched on her bottom in an incident that was “brief but startling for her”.
He said the incident was caught on CCTV and one thing that was clear was McCourt’s “level of intoxication”. He said “drunkenness is no excuse” for what had happened.
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Referring to the woman’s victim impact statement, the judge said one if the worst aspects for her was that some people suggested she was a liar. He said counsel for the defendant had not called the woman a liar and “no issue was taken with her honesty and accuracy”.
“She had told the truth and she did suffer an indecent assault,” said the judge, who noted that McCourt had not accepted his guilt and therefore the pre-sentence report left him with few options.
‘Isolated incident’
He said McCourt had been assessed as being at the “lowest risk” of re-offending and that he was not a danger. He said “this is clearly an isolated incident” that occurred during a “moment of madness”.
But, he said, women and girls should be able to go out free from any fear of “anyone putting their hand up their clothes”.
Had the young woman’s honesty been called into question, Judge Magill said, then there would have been an immediate custodial sentence. He said this was not questioned, so he would impose a sentence of three months suspended for two years.
He ordered McCourt to sign the Sex Offender’s Register for a period of five years.
