A woman who was sexually molested as she slept in a hotel bedroom told a court that she was severely traumatised by the attack, and particularly by the three-year wait for the case to come to court.
"I was a victim on the night but I have also been a victim for the last three years," she said yesterday at Cork Circuit Criminal Court.
She was describing the impact the incident at the Metropole Hotel on October 31st, 1995, had had on her life.
A 33-year-old Cork city man, who cannot be named by order of the judge, changed his plea to guilty of sexual assault on the second day of the trial before Judge Anthony Murphy and a jury.
The court was told the defendant had no previous convictions and came from a very respectable family. A consultant psychiatrist who had treated him for hyper-mania and depression said she felt he now had his drinking under control and there was little likelihood of his coming to the notice of the courts again.
Judge Murphy described the defendant's behaviour as outrageous. However, he was essentially a decent person on whom the case had also had a catastrophic effect. It seemed that drink played a major part, and some of his behaviour showed incipient alcoholism.
He was prepared to adjourn the case for two years if the man gave an undertaking not to drink during that time. To do so would be contempt of court, for which a sentence would be imposed in addition to a sentence for the original offence.
The defendant gave the undertaking, and the court was also told that compensation acceptable to the victim had been offered.