Garda convicted of sex assault on female colleague avoids jail time

A garda who sexually assaulted a fellow female officer and harassed another at a Garda station has been given a six-month jail sentence and fined a total of €10,000. However, the jail term was replaced by community service.

Married father-of-three Kevin Corby showed no emotion as the jail sentence was passed at Letterkenny Circuit Court in Co Donegal yesterday .

Corby then had his jail term substituted for 240 hours’ community service.

Corby, who is in his mid-30s and originally from Co Leitrim, had been found guilty of the offences by a jury last October and the case had been adjourned for sentence.

The offences took place while Corby and the two female victims were working as part of a team in a north Donegal Garda station in 2010 and 2011.

'Tormented and sickened'

Passing sentence Judge John O’Hagan said the public needed to have the trust of those people who wore a uniform – be it green or blue.

He said Corby, with an address at Stranorlar, Co Donegal, must have realised the impact his harassment was having on his two female colleagues and described his actions as “persistent and consistent”.

He fined Corby €5,000 on each of the harassment charges and sentenced him to six months in jail but substituted that with community service.

Both of Corby’s victims sat on the opposite side of the courtroom from him. Their victim impact statements were not read out in court but Judge O’Hagan read one line from the statements. It read they were “tormented and sickened by the remarks and sexual innuendo”.