Cork man jailed for assault, sexual assault and harrassment

A man was jailed for a total of three and a half years on Wednesday after he was convicted following two separate trials of assaulting a woman and sexually assaulting a teenage girl.

Anthony Quigley (46) appeared first before Judge Gerard O'Brien at Cork Circuit Criminal Court where he was sentenced to four years with two years suspended for assault causing harm to Amanda Donegan.

Quigley, from Roches Height in Mitchelstown, was later brought back before Judge Brian O'Callaghan at Cork Circuit Criminal Court where he was sentenced to three years in jail with 18 months suspended for the sexual assault on the teenager on December 4th 2018.

Quigley was also given four concurrent 18 month sentences by Judge O’Callaghan for harassment of the girl and three of her friends.

Judge O’Callaghan made his sentences consecutive to Judge O’Brien’s sentence after hearing that Quigley was on bail on the assault charge when he committed the offences against the teenagers.

Det Garda Denise Fitzgerald told the court Ms Donegan was sitting in her car on Cork Street in Mitchelstown at about 2.30pm on February 5th, 2018 when Quigley walked by with his dog and started shouting at her.

Quigley reached in through an open window and struck her. He then dragged her out of the car and assaulted her on the footpath.

A number of passersby intervened and detained him until gardaí arrived and arrested him. The victim suffered cuts and bruising.

The court heard Quigley had threatened to kill Ms Donegan during the assault, which he claimed she provoked.

Det Garda Fitzgerald said the second incident happened when Quigley sat next to the four friends aged 15 and 16 as they were travelling on a bus from Cork to Mitchelstown and he started talking to them in an inappropriate manner.

One of the victims told the court how they were sitting on four of the five back seats in the bus when Quigley sat down beside them.

“He was telling racist jokes — about Chinese or people with dots on their foreheads. He asked us our names. We just said our first names. He shook our hands. I immediately locked in to stranger danger,” said the girl.

“I started coughing. He started rubbing my back and patting my shoulder. I was terrified. He patted my left thigh a few times — my upper thigh. He was pushing close to me and breathing on me. He was invading my privacy.”

Another of the girls said he told her that if he won the Lotto, he would take them on a foreign holiday. He said he would love to stay in hotel room with her before he asked her if she had a boyfriend.

“He kept saying inappropriate stuff about how hot I was. He wrote down his number and said I should call him and send him compliments. He kept saying he hoped I call him. I kind of froze,” she said.

Det Garda Fitzgerald told the first hearing that Quigley had 56 previous convictions, including one for sexually assaulting a 13-year-old girl, as well five for assault, of which four were on females.

He also had nine previous convictions for harassment, 12 for indecent calls or texts and three for hoax calls. The remaining 25 were for public order or road traffic matters.

Defence barrister, Niamh Ó Donnabháin said her client had been seriously injured in road traffic collision in 2000 which left him in a coma for 27 days. She said he had suffered an acquired brain injury as a result.

She submitted a psychiatric report from Dr Frank Kelly, who said it appeared Quigley had suffered a profound personality change after the crash. This caused significant cognitive impairment and left him at risk of impulsivity, he said.

Judge O’Brien said it was regrettable there was not more support available to those with mental health issues but Quigley was a menace. He sentenced him to four years in prison, with two suspended.

Judge O’Callaghan said teenage girls were entitled to travel by bus and not have their private space invaded and be subjected to harrassment.