Man who fled during sexual assault trial has been arrested to begin nine-year prison term
The Wicklow PeopleA man who absconded midway through a sexual assault trial at Wicklow Circuit Criminal Court was apprehended on Monday and has now begun the nine-year prison sentence handed down to him.
The man, who cannot be named for legal reasons, had been charged with two counts of sexual assault. He fled shortly before the jury was due to resume deliberations in June last year, but was found in Arklow this week.
The state solicitor for Wicklow informed a sitting of Wicklow Circuit Criminal Court on Tuesday, that the accused was apprehended on foot of a bench warrant and brought into custody to begin his sentence.
Judge Patrick Quinn cancelled the bench warrant.
During sentencing in November 2025, Detective Garda Sinéad Brosnahan told Wicklow Circuit Court that the trial began on June 26, 2025. On June 27, Judge Terence O’Sullivan informed the jury that a majority verdict would be accepted. When court resumed after lunch, the defendant had fled.
The court heard that numerous calls were made to him, but these went unanswered, and his phone later went out of service.
Gardaí spoke to his ex-partner, who said she last had contact with him that Friday afternoon and described him as acting erratically. She said they had broken up several months before the trial, though he had been living at her property until the case concluded.
Det Garda Brosnahan said she travelled to the man’s last known address in Tipperary and contacted two previous employers, both of whom had not heard from him. Search warrants were executed at multiple locations, including a property owned by a former employer.
The defendant had not claimed social welfare and was unemployed at the time.
One bail condition required him to surrender his passport, though it was out of date and he had not applied for a replacement.
Counsel for the prosecution, James Kelly BL, outlined evidence heard during the trial. In June 2019, the defendant had been living in the same house as the teenage victim for almost a year.
The victim returned home at around 9pm after being out with friends.
It was alleged that the defendant then entered her room with a towel around him and asked for a massage, saying he had a sore back.
The victim described the situation as “unusual and extremely strange”.
He then grabbed her by the throat and began kissing her.
Mr Kelly said the defendant forced the victim onto the bed, removed her clothing, and sexually assaulted her for several minutes, while also attempting to proposition her.
It was noted at sentencing that the victim said she heard her mother coming upstairs, at which point the defendant left the room. She described feeling “paralysed” and later contacted her brother via Facebook Messenger.
He was removed from the home the following day.
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Det Garda Brosnahan outlined the subsequent investigation. Det Brosnahan stated that he was arrested and released on station bail, maintaining his innocence during interview, saying: “I will fight this.”
A victim impact statement, read to the court by James Kelly BL, described how the victim felt “frozen, paralysed and scared”. She said she cried herself to sleep, struggled being in her room, and at one point attempted to end her own life. She also described the difficulty of coming to court and sitting in the same room as the accused.
She said the aftermath affected her entire family and that she nearly dropped the case because she felt overwhelmed.
Counsel for the defence, Ed Sweetman BL, said he had nothing to add. The defence case during trial was that the assault never occurred. The jury returned a majority verdict of 11 to one.
During sentencing, Judge O’Sullivan said the defendant’s decision to flee was an insult to the court process, the victim, and the jury.
He imposed a sentence of 10 years on each count, to run concurrently. The judge said the level of force used, the age gap, and the impact on the victim moved the offence into the higher sentencing range.
The final year of the 10-year sentence was suspended, taking into account that the defendant, who was 39 at the time of the offence, had no previous convictions.
Judge O’Sullivan concluded sentencing by expressing support for the victim.
The defendant will now begin his sentence at an undisclosed prison in Ireland.