A registered sex offender (51) has been sentenced to nine months in jail for a series of offences including one where he put his arm around a woman in her 60s and asked if she wanted to have sex with him.
Anthony Quigley from Roches Heights, Mitchelstown, Co Cork, had previously pleaded guilty to engaging in offensive conduct of a sexual nature in relation to the incident in Mitchelstown on March 15th, 2024, contrary to Section 45 of the Criminal Law (Sexual Offences) Act 2017.
Det Gda David Barry of Fermoy Garda station told Cork Circuit Criminal Court that Quigley approached a woman (63) on Upper Cork St in Mitchelstown on the day in question and put his arm around her neck and asked her: “Do you want to have sex with me?”
Det Gda Barry also told the court that Quigley had committed another offence when on November 12th, 2024, he failed to give a proper name and address to gardaí as required under the terms of the Sex Offenders (Amendment) Act 2023.
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He said Quigley had been placed on the Sex Offenders Register in 2018 but when he was stopped by gardaí on Oliver Plunkett St in Cork City, he showed them an ID in the name of James Anthony Quigley and gave them a different house number at Roches Heights in Mitchelstown.
Det Gda Barry said both these offences were a breach of conditions attached to a three-year sentence with 18 months suspended that Quigley got for the sexual assault and harassment of a teenager and the harassment of three of her friends on a bus on December 4th, 2018.
Quigley had a total of 66 previous convictions including two for sexual assault, nine for harassment, 15 for indecent communications, five for assault and one for assault causing harm as well as 16 for public order offences, said Det Gda Barry.
Defence barrister John Devlin BL pleaded for leniency and pointed out his client had apologised during interview for what had happened, and that he suffered a head injury in a car crash when he was 17 which had impaired his speech and memory and affected his mental capacity.
However, Judge Sheehan noted that Quigley had a long history of sexual offences going back to the early 2000s and what concerned was that he did not appear to realise the seriousness of his offending.
“He has a history. That is what is concerning me. He does not seem to appreciate the seriousness of what is going on,” said Judge Sheehan as he jailed him for nine months on each of the three charges with all three sentences to run concurrently.
