CITY TRIBUNE
Taxi driver jailed for efforts to groom teenage girl
A taxi driver has been sentenced to two years in prison with the final year suspended for sexually assaulting a schoolgirl in his car.
Father of four, Toni Muzinga (48), of Cartur Mór, Clybaun Road, told the 16-year-old she should keep secrets from her mother, before offering her money and a new phone if she went with him to Oranmore where no one would see them.
Muzinga pleaded guilty before Galway Circuit Criminal Court last December to sexually assaulting the girl on February 16 last year.
Sentence was adjourned to last week for the preparation of a victim impact statement.
Garda Neil Lydon said Muzinga knew the victim since she was a child and on the date in question he saw her in Eyre Square and offered her a lift home. She got into the back of his taxi but on the way home she became uneasy due to the nature of his comments to her.
He told her she should keep secrets from her mother and her mother didn’t have to know everything she was doing.
He asked for her number and started making arrangements to meet her, telling her to keep that information from her mother. He offered her money and a new phone. He told her he would give her lots of things that her mother could not afford to give her and she was to keep them a secret from her mother.
Muzinga offered to bring the girl to Oranmore where they would not be seen. He then put his hand back and groped her. He asked her to kiss him before letting her out of the taxi.
The girl told her mother what had happened and they went to Gardaí.
The girl told Garda Lydon she was shocked and stunned and “just froze” when the assault happened.
Garda Lydon said Muzinga knew the girl’s family for many years through mutual friends.
He was interviewed and admitted picking the girl up in Eyre Square.
However, he denied sexually assaulting her, saying that he accidentally touched her while opening the door to let her out.
Garda Lydon confirmed Muzinga had nine previous convictions, including one for handling stolen property, while the rest were for traffic offences.
Defence barrister, Aisling Wall, said her client was a widower since his wife died suddenly ten years ago. The couple had come to Ireland in 2001 and were granted asylum. He had always worked and was the sole carer for his children as his extended family still lived in DR Congo.
She said Muzinga could offer no explanation for what he did but he was sorry and had brought €2,000 to court to offer to the victim.
He had to surrender his taxi licence last December and could no longer work.
His actions, she said, had a detrimental impact on his own children as well as the victim.
The girl told the court she had been a happy-go-lucky girl before this incident, but she was now more cautious and wary of people, especially men.
“I knew this man well since I was five years old. I felt I could trust him when he offered me a lift home but instead, he took advantage of my innocence. I no longer feel safe around older men.
“My mother is extremely upset that a family friend would abuse her trust in this way.
“Rumours were put out, too, that it was me who led this man on and caused the whole situation. They also said I was pregnant. These rumours are false and they have weighed heavily on me and I’m still attending a counsellor,” the girl told the court.
Ms Wall said Muzinga accepted the consequences of his actions had been enormous for the victim.
She said Muzinga’s pastor from the Presbyterian and Methodist Church, was present in court to support him.
“She (Pastor) has been an enormous support to him and his family. She thinks very highly of him and is here to support him today.
“She has given him a very good reference and speaks of him being a very trustworthy member of the community,” Ms Wall added.
She said Muzinga was very concerned about what might happen to his children if he received a custodial sentence and that they might have to go into foster care.
Judge Rory McCabe said the maximum sentence for sexual assault was ten years.
He said Muzinga planned this offence and had the young victim not been so alert it may well have been the first step on a journey to ‘grooming’.
Whatever plan Muzinga had in mind did not succeed thanks to the girl’s proper conduct and quick and decisive action in telling her mother, the judge said.
Thanks to the girl’s decisive action, the offence did not go any further and as a result it could be placed at the lower end on the scale of gravity for similar offences.
He said Muzinga tried to minimise the offence to Gardaí and it was “disturbing and worrying” that there was no explanation given for his behaviour.
“The testimonials handed in paint a different picture to the sex offender before the court and the gravity must be marked with a custodial sentence,” Judge McCabe said.
He imposed two years in prison and suspended the final year for five years.
He deferred commencement of the sentence until May 1, to give Muzinga time to make arrangements for his children.
The deferral was granted on condition Muzinga surrender his passport straight away and undertake to surrender himself to the authorities at 12 noon on May 1.
A woman, believed to be Muzinga’s partner, hung onto him as he was being led away by prison officers. She screamed outside the courtroom and threw herself on the floor crying as he was led downstairs to the cells.
A short time later, Muzinga was released from custody after his passport was handed over to Gardaí. He has been placed on the Sex Offender’s Register.
From the Galway City Tribune – An impassioned plea for a ‘masterplan’ that would guide Galway City into the future has been made in the Dáil. Galway West TD Catherine Connolly stated this week that there needed to be an all-inclusive approach with “vision and leadership” in order to build a sustainable city.
Deputy Connolly spoke at length at the crisis surrounding traffic and housing in Galway city and said that not all of the blame could be laid at the door of the local authority.
She said that her preference would be the provision of light rail as the main form of public transport, but that this would have to be driven by the government.
“I sat on the local council for 17 years and despaired at all of the solutions going down one road, metaphorically and literally. In 2005 we put Park & Ride into the development plan, but that has not been rolled out. A 2016 transport strategy was outdated at the time and still has not been updated.
“Due to the housing crisis in the city, a task force was set up in 2019. Not a single report or analysis has been published on the cause of the crisis,” added Deputy Connolly.
She then referred to a report from the Land Development Agency (LDA) that identified lands suitable for the provision of housing. But she said that two-thirds of these had significant problems and a large portion was in Merlin Park University Hospital which, she said, would never have housing built on it.
In response, Minister Simon Harris spoke of the continuing job investment in the city and also in higher education, which is his portfolio.
But turning his attention to traffic congestion, he accepted that there were “real issues” when it came to transport, mobility and accessibility around Galway.
“We share the view that we need a Park & Ride facility and I understand there are also Bus Connects plans.
“I also suggest that the City Council reflect on her comments. I am proud to be in a Government that is providing unparalleled levels of investment to local authorities and unparalleled opportunities for local authorities to draw down,” he said.
Then Minister Harris referred to the controversial Galway City Outer Ring Road which he said was “struck down by An Bord Pleanála”, despite a lot of energy having been put into that project.
However, Deputy Connolly picked up on this and pointed out that An Bord Pleanála did not say ‘No’ to the ring road.
“The High Court said ‘No’ to the ring road because An Bord Pleanála acknowledged it failed utterly to consider climate change and our climate change obligations.
“That tells us something about An Bord Pleanála and the management that submitted such a plan.”
In the end, Minister Harris agreed that there needed to be a masterplan for Galway City.
“I suggest it is for the local authority to come up with a vision and then work with the Government to try to fund and implement that.”
The new Salmon Weir pedestrian and cycle bridge will be officially opened to the public next Friday, May 26.
Work on the €10 million bridge got underway in April 2022, before the main structure was hoisted into place in early December.
A lunchtime tape-cutting ceremony will take place on Friday, as the first pedestrians and cyclists traverse the as-yet-unnamed bridge.
The Chief Executive of Galway City Council, Brendan McGrath, previously said the bridge, once opened, would remove existing conflicts between pedestrians, cyclists and traffic “as well as facilitating the Cross-City Link public transport corridor over the existing 200-year-old bridge”.
The naming of the new bridge has been under discussion by the Council’s Civic Commemorations Committee since late last year.
One name that has been in the mix for some time is that of the first woman in Europe to graduate with an engineering degree – Alice Perry.
Ms Perry, who was from Wellpark, graduated from Queen’s College Galway (now University of Galway) in 1906. The university’s engineering building is named in her honour.
The bridge was built by Jons Civil Engineering firm in County Meath and was assembled off-site before being transported to Galway. Funding for the project was provided in full by the National Transport Authority and the European Regional Development Fund.
(Photo: Sheila Gallagher captured the city’s new pedestrian footbridge being raised on the south side of the Salmon Weir Bridge in December. It will officially open next Friday, May 26).
From the Galway City Tribune – Minister of State for Local Government and Planning, Kieran O’Donnell was labelled a “disgrace” for overturning councillors’ decisions to rezone land in the new City Development Plan.
Minister O’Donnell (pictured) confirmed in a letter to Council Chief Executive Brendan McGrath last week that he was reversing 25 material alternations made by councillors to the CDP 2023-29. He made the decision on the advice of Office of Planning Regulator (OPR).
Minister O’Donnell directed that 14 land parcels that were subject to land-use zoning changes by councillors as part of the Material Alterations to the Draft CDP should be reversed.
He directed that a further 11 land parcels in the city should become “unzoned”.
The Minister found that the CDP had not been made in a manner consistent with recommendations of the OPR, which required specific changes to the plan to ensure consistency with the national planning laws and guidelines.
At last week’s Council meeting Cllr Eddie Hoare (FG) asked for clarity on the process by which councillors could rezone the lands that had been changed by the Minister’s direction.
Cllr Declan McDonnell said, “What he [Minister O’Donnell] has done is an absolute disgrace”.
And he asked: “Do we have to have another development plan meeting to deal with it?”
Both Cllrs Hoare and McDonnell wondered what would become of the lands that were rezoned or unzoned by the ministerial direction.
Mr McGrath said the Council had put forward an argument in favour of retaining the material alterations in the plan, but ultimately the Minister sided with OPR.
He said if councillors want to make alterations to the new plan, they could go through the process of making a material alteration but this was lengthy.
The Save Roscam Peninsula campaign welcomed the Minister’s decision.
In a statement to the Galway City Tribune, it said the direction would mean the Roscam village area on the Roscam Peninsula will be unzoned and a number of land parcels would revert back to agriculture/high amenity.
A spokesperson for the campaign said: “the material alterations made by city councillors following lobbying by developers continued the long-standing practice of councillors facilitating a developer-led plan rather than an evidence- and policy-based plan that meets the needs of the city.
“The Minister’s direction is an important step in restoring confidence in the planning system. It is clear from the City Council’s own evidence on future housing projections that there was no requirement to zone these lands for residential purposes in order to meet the needs of the targeted population increase up to 2029,” the spokesperson added.
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