A WOMAN who suffered a three and a half hour sexual assault at the hands of a colleague in her Limerick workplace on her first day on the job has waived anonymity so her attacker can be named.
Donna O’Loughlin (32) from Athea told Kilmallock District Court that she fears she will never be able work again after enduring the assault.
The attack was carried out on her by her co-worker Mohammed Kashif (40), of Hazelgrove in Newcastle West, on May 20 last at Kebabish on Main Street in Foynes.
Detective Elaine O’Keefe, of Newcastle West, told Judge Patricia Harney that the accused “slid his hand over her buttocks and then slapped her buttocks quite firmly. He asked her for kisses and for sex”.
Detective O’Keefe said that as Ms O’Loughlin bent forward in the course of her work, Mr Kashif “twice grabbed her vagina”. The detective said that Ms O’Loughlin pushed Mr Kashif away and “he laughed at her”.
“He grabbed her breast and rubbed himself against her and asked ‘can you feel my erection?'”
Mr Kashif pleaded guilty to sexual assault just before the case was due to be heard on Tuesday morning.
Ms O’Loughlin said the assault by Mr Kashif was “aggressive and violating”.
“I was repeatedly laughed at and made to feel terrible and worthless,” she said.
She said the experience affected her relationship with her husband and two children, one of whom is severely disabled.
Having left the job in the fast food restaurant, Ms O’Loughlin told the court that she has tried other employment but the experience haunts her.
Counsel for the convicted man said that he had pleaded guilty and that he feels remorse, adding that “he phoned the injured party a week after the events and apologised”.
Ms Kashif said that, as a married man with two children, the prosecution had had its own impact on him.
The court heard he has no previous convictions but Judge Patricia Harney said that his plea “was hardly an early admission”, even if it had saved Ms O’Loughlin from having to give full evidence and relive the assault.
After warning that she was considering a prison sentence, Judge Harney said she was obliged to consider the plea and his clean record and sentenced him to two months in jail suspended for two years.
Judge Harney was told she couldn’t place him on the sex offenders register as the custodial sentence was a suspended one.
Inspector Gearoid Thompson asked the judge to lift normal reporting restrictions as “the injured party wants him to be publicly named”.
