Security supervisor found guilty of sexually assaulting colleague at Wicklow music festival

By Darragh McCann, The Wicklow People

A security supervisor has been found guilty of sexually assaulting a young woman while the pair were working at a music festival in Wicklow in the summer of 2023.

The defendant, who cannot be named to protect the identity of the alleged victim, appeared before Wicklow Circuit Criminal Court this week, where he had pleaded not guilty to one count of sexual assault.

On the first day of the trial, counsel for the prosecution, James Kelly BL, told the jury that the case centred on an allegation that the accused sexually assaulted the woman while the pair were working together as security staff at a music festival.

The court heard that the complainant, who was aged in her 20s at the time, had attended the festival after being offered work by a friend and met the accused, who was acting as her supervisor on the night in question.

Giving evidence, the woman told the court that she had been assigned to work in a cabin near an access gate alongside the accused, who she alleged had been drinking alcohol while on duty.

She alleged that at approximately 9.30pm, the accused pulled her onto his lap and told her that he “isn’t her boss anymore”, before allegedly rubbing his hand on her stomach and inside her vagina without her consent. It’s also alleged he rubbed his genitalia on her back.

The complainant told the court she was frightened during the alleged incident and said she “froze”, telling the jury that she kept looking into space.

The court heard that she managed to break away from the accused by telling him she wanted to call a takeaway, but said her phone was on charge and undergoing a software update at the time.

She told the court that she later contacted her mother, but there was no phone signal in the lodge, which caused her to become upset.

The woman said she then left the cabin and contacted her father, who collected her from the festival site later that evening.

Senior counsel for the defence, Colman Fitzgerald SC, challenged the woman’s account and put it to her that he did not believe her version of events.

The court heard that the woman made a statement to gardaí the day after the alleged incident and later provided further statements in 2024 and 2025.

When questioned about differences between her evidence and her statements, the complainant told the court that her memory of events was “fogged”, but maintained that she was telling the truth.

Day two began with testimony from a security staff member who was working on the night of the alleged sexual assault. He told the court he met the complainant while she was walking towards the main entrance.

He continued by stating that when he met the complainant, she was crying and struggling to breathe, before she told him, “one of the security officers tried to get it on with her”.

He further remarked that the complainant’s father jumped over a gate before meeting the witness, who recalled him shouting the accused’s name and demanding to see him, before gardaí were alerted to the situation.

The complainant was brought home when her mother arrived.

In evidence, the security worker told the court that the complainant’s father returned a second time and met him again, appearing to want to do harm to the defendant.

“We had a little tussle after I told him he can’t go any further,” said the witness, adding, “he calmed down and apologised before jumping back over the gate and going home.” It was noted the father had a piece of steel rebar in his hand at the time.

During cross-examination, senior counsel asked multiple questions in relation to the “tussle”, with the witness repeating what he had said during his evidence.

The father of the complainant told the court that his wife informed him what his daughter had told her over the phone, before he went to the festival and encountered the accused at the gate, where the incident took place.

He alleged in his evidence that when he asked the accused about his daughter, the accused retrieved an electric bike from next to the cabin and fled the scene.

After this, he met his daughter, who told him on the way home that the defendant tried to make her take a drink before pulling her onto his lap and trying to sexually assault her.

A witness for the prosecution, the complainant’s mother, recalled receiving a call from her daughter and her husband leaving the house to go find her. She recalled her daughter telling her that the accused kept kissing her and putting his hand down the back of her pants. The mother stated that her daughter “got lucky she ran away from him”.

The investigating garda, Barry Walker, explained how he became involved in the case and his interview with the accused.

It was put to the defendant during interview by Gda Walker and Detective Garda Stephanie Hallahan that he was the “perpetrator of a sexual assault”, with the court hearing that the accused told them “to cut the bullshit as I’m here to answer questions”.

Mr Kelly told the court that during interview it was established that the accused admitted to working with the complainant.

When the complainant’s statement was read to him, which included that he made remarks about “him being a Pot Noodle flavour and if she wanted to try it”, and that he asked her to have a drink “to let loose”, he denied it, stating, “it’s all lies, it’s all lies”.

The last witness in the case was the accused, who told the sitting of Wicklow Circuit Court that he was unaware why the complainant was “making allegations against him”, before admitting to drinking one Bacardi.

Counsel for the prosecution asked him if the alcohol was from drink confiscated at the festival, to which he replied, “I wouldn’t drink confiscated alcohol. You don’t know what kids are putting in their drinks these days”.

He stated he has used the same glass over his last 24 years working in the security sector and that on the night he only had one single Bacardi and coke.

He denied offering the complainant a drink and stated that allegations about him rubbing his penis against her back were “disgusting”.

Mr Kelly put it to him that on the night he tried to do something he might consider romantic, to which he replied, “there’s f**king nothing romantic about that, lad”.

The defendant recalled seeing the complainant’s father and alleged that he shouted at him, “I’m going to f**king kill you”, while holding a metal bar in his hand.

During examination by his own counsel, the court heard the accused was diagnosed with a condition that causes his heart to stop temporarily, meaning oxygen does not go to his brain.

Both counsels made their closing arguments before Judge Patrick Quinn delivered his charge to the jury, made up of 10 men and two women.

“You must assess the evidence and the features of the case,” he said, adding, “the prosecution must prove their case beyond reasonable doubt.”

He added: “If two kids are in a kitchen and a chocolate cake is there with a big bite taken out of it, and the mother sees one of the kids with chocolate on his mouth, you can infer that it was that child.”

The jury deliberated until 3pm on Thursday, February 12, before returning a unanimous verdict of guilty.

The complainant and her family could be heard crying after the verdict was read.

After the jury was discharged, the court was told that the defendant could remain on continuing bail until sentencing, but must sign on daily at a garda station and hand up his passport to his solicitor, Michael O’Connor, within 48 hours.