Bus pervert facing jail term

A 52-year-old man who asked a female passenger on a bus to perform a sex act on him, and then proceeded to masturbate during the journey, has been told he may face a prison sentence.

Eamon McCoy of 20 Beachmount Road, Highfield Park, appeared before Athlone District Court.

BY ADRIAN CUSACK

He entered a guilty plea to a charge of intentionally engaging in offensive conduct of a sexual nature during a bus journey on the M6 at Ardagowna, Athlone, on February 15 last.

Outlining the details of the incident, Sergeant Paul McNally said Gardai received a complaint from a woman at 2.15pm on that date. She told them that she was on a bus heading towards Galway when a male passenger asked her to perform oral sex. He then proceeded to masturbate under his clothing.

The woman took a photo of the man, McCoy, on her phone and contacted the Gardai.

Solicitor Dara Hayden, representing McCoy, said his client was “reluctantly” entering a guilty plea to the charge, as “he tells me that he doesn’t recall the incident” and was “appalled” by the details that were outlined. He said the defendant had bipolar disorder and was on a lot of medication at the time of the offence.

McCoy, who wore a sports headband and dark glasses during the hearing, had worked as a nurse’s aide in an old folks’ home up until 15 or 20 years ago, but he had not worked since then and was on disability benefit, his solicitor said.

Judge Seamus Hughes asked McCoy why he had been travelling on the bus on the date of the incident, and he replied that he was heading back to Galway from Dublin airport.

The judge asked him why he had been in the airport, and whether he had been returning from a trip overseas, but McCoy said he hadn’t.

“I go up [to the airport] from time to time . . . I just went up there for the day,” he said.

Judge Hughes said that, as a first step, he wanted to see McCoy come up with “€2,000, payable in cash, for the girl.”

Mr Hayden replied that his client would find it very difficult to come up with that sum of money, and he was willing to engage in preventative measures to make sure this doesn’t happen again.

“Don’t tempt me to say it,” replied the judge. “I know in some countries what the preventative measure would be.”

The judge said he regarded McCoy as “a very creepy type of character” who had said something “extremely vulgar” to the female passenger.

“All of the signs point to this having been caused by a mental health issue,” replied Mr Hayden, but the judge said this was pure speculation on the solicitor’s part.

Mr Hayden asked for some time to come up with a medical report on his client, and Judge Hughes agreed to adjourn the case for two months.

The judge said he wanted to see a medical explanation for how any mental illness McCoy might have would have caused him to behave the way he did on the bus.

He also said he wanted assurances that the defendant wouldn’t do this “creepy, filthy, dirty, rotten thing again.”

Adjourning the case to December 11 next, Judge Hughes said he would deal with the issues of compensation and custodial sentence length on that date.