A man who broke up a fight between two young women outside a takeaway in Co Donegal has been found guilty of sexually assaulting one of the women during the melee.
The man interjected between the two women outside a takeaway at Port Road in Letterkenny on July 1st, 2018.
However, one of the women claimed the accused digitally penetrated her as she fought on the ground with the other woman.
The accused managed to flee the scene despite being pursued by the women’s friends.
The shocked woman contacted a friend, Sean McFadden, who was a doorman at the Voodoo Nightclub nearby and he collected her.
He described how he collected the woman and she was in a terrible state with mascara running down the side of her face because she was crying so much.
She told him what had happened and he took her to Letterkenny Garda station where she made a report of the attack and also received treatment.
He said “She told me what had happened and I told her that she had to report it to the Gardai so I drove her to the station.
“She was absolutely in bits. There was mascara running down the side of her face from crying.”
The accused was apprehended at a later date when he was spotted by eagle-eyed staff from the Pulse Nightclub where the woman had been socialising on the night she was attacked.
He always denied that he attacked the woman.
The woman, who said she was wearing a short jump-suit, said she had not been drinking excessively.
Barrister for the accused, Mr Shane Costello, asked the woman if she had taken any other substances on the night and she denied she had.
However, Mr Costello said that a state analysis taken from the woman during the course of her examination showed traces of a substance identified as cocaine.
The woman categorically denied that she had taken cocaine.
Mr Costello also suggested that red marks found on the woman’s vagina could have been as a result of the fight with the other woman.
The jury of eleven men and one woman were shown CCTV footage of the attack as part of the court evidence.
They returned after deliberating for a number of hours to deliver a guilty verdict.
Judge John Aylmer adjourned the case until the next sitting of Letterkenny Circuit Court in April for sentencing.