A DENTIST has admitted fully opening the tunic of a trainee dental nurse but he denied that it constituted a sexual assault or that there was any sexual element to his actions.
The dentist said that he opened all five buttons on the young woman’s tunic, exposing her bra, because another dental nurse at the surgery had previously had problems with the buttons falling off and he wanted to check if these buttons were properly sewn on.
“I said I would check the buttons and I undid five buttons on her tunic and I recall turning over the last button to check the lapel,” he said. “She didn’t make any attempt to say stop . . . I was just looking at the tunic, there was was no attempt at sexual assault or sexual contact.
“I was just checking the uniform, there was no other intent . . . I felt at the time I was just checking the buttons. Now in hindsight I can see how inappropriate it was . . . hugely regrettable,” said the dentist, who cannot be named on foot of a court order.
He also admitted putting a pencil into the pocket of the woman’s tunic on the same occasion but denies moving it back and forth. He could not say whether it touched against her bra or not, Cork District Court heard.
The dentist denies three counts of sexually assaulting the trainee dental nurse at his surgery between April 9th, 2008, and June 16th, 2008, when, she says, the last assault involving the tunic occurred and she quit her job.
Cork District Court had earlier heard the woman’s evidence when she told how the dentist had asked her to come into work early at 8am on June 16th, 2008, when she alleges that he opened her tunic.
She told the court that she was upset and was crying at her desk and when the dentist saw her, he asked her what was wrong but she did not want to tell him why so she said she had something in her eye.
She said he then leaned over and kissed her eye. “I just felt shocked because I was by myself with him in the practice. I felt violated.”
She said she couldn’t go back to work after the incident. She contacted gardaí four days later and made a full statement to them a month later.
The woman also alleges that on another occasion the dentist put a pen camera, used for examining teeth, down the front of her pants to examine a tattoo that she told him she had.
He admitted using a pen camera to examine a tattoo on her back but denied that he ever put the camera down her pants to examine a second tattoo. He knew she had such a tattoo because she later pulled down her waistband to show it to him at reception.
Judge Tim Lucey adjourned the case to fix a date for closing submissions while he also adjourned an application by solicitor Ernest Cantillon, on behalf of both The Irish Times and RTÉ, to have the court order restricting the identification of the accused lifted.