A man who sexually assaulted an epileptic woman as she lay on a hospital bed has been jailed for four and a half years.
Thomas Lawlor (32), of no fixed abode, pleaded guilty yesterday to sexual assault at the Mater Hospital, Dublin, on May 19th, 1998.
Dublin Circuit Criminal Court heard that Lawlor had seven previous convictions for sexual offences, including a sexual assault on a four-year-old girl in Britain. The defendant pleaded with the court to be given the maximum sentence possible.
Garda Claire Kearney told Mr Brendan Grehan BL that on the day of the offence, Lawlor had been taken to the hospital after a severe drinking spree. He was placed on a bench outside the casualty ward by security staff. A 34-year-old woman was lying on a trolley in the casualty ward, screened off by a curtain. Lawlor went to the woman and began pulling at her blankets and when she turned around, he began feeling her breasts. She tried to remove his hands but he began touching her belly and tried to remove her underwear. The woman shouted and screamed for help and Lawlor returned to his place on the bench.
Lawlor was sent to St Brendan's Institution and was arrested on his release several weeks later. He admitted the offence to gardai. Garda Kearney said that the victim had been sexually assaulted as a child and Lawlor's actions had greatly aggravated her trauma. She has since spent nine months receiving counselling.
Passing sentence, Judge Cyril Kelly said that Lawlor was a danger to society who needed a great deal of treatment before being released.