Man attacked girl following breakdown at seminar
A man violently attacked a teenage girl on the Nitelink bus during an extremely psychiatric episode following a breakdown suffered at a Tony Quinn seminar, a court has heard.
John Hussain made eye contact with the 16-year-old girl who was travelling on the bus with a male friend in October 2000 and turned when she heard a commotion behind her.
Hussain lunged at her, ripped open her blouse and her bra and bit her on the stomach before attempting to open the buttons on her jeans with his teeth.
He was eventually restrained and the girl managed to escape his grasp.
Hussain, aged 36, from Grattan Street, Dublin 2, pleaded guilty at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court to sexually assaulting the now 18-year-old girl on October 1, 2000. He has no previous convictions.
Judge Elizabeth Dunne adjourned the case until October 10 for a probation report because of Hussain's history of mental illness and because he had no previous convictions.
"There is no doubt that this was a barbaric attack and the effects on the victim are quite clear," she said.
Judge Dunne said it was a difficult case to deal with because on the one hand there a most appalling attack and on the other there was someone who was suffering from a serious mental illness at the time. She remanded Hussain on bail.
Hussain apologised to his victim, who attended court with her father, and said he would never have done it if he was in his right mind.
"I am deeply ashamed and very sorry for what I did. I only pray the girl can forgive me. I would never have done it if I was in my right mind," he said.
Garda Sharon Mooney told Ms Mary Rose Gearty BL, prosecuting, that the girl came to the garda station with her father three days after the incident to make a complaint.
Hussain was tracked down because of a jacket and a diary he left on the bus and was identified after an I.D. parade. He told gardai he couldn't remember anything of the night.
Ms Marie Torrens BL, for Hussain, said his client took out a loan from the Credit Union to attend a Tony Quinn seminar in the Bahamas the previous May. While he was there he suffered a nervous breakdown and began to suffer serious paranoia.
Ms Torrens added that the seminar was not entirely to blame for his psychiatric difficulties because according to a doctor's report his condition was already developing at the time. The course may just have expedited it.
Hussain, a self-employed salesman at the time, went to England for a short period just after he returned home from the Bahamas and suffered another serious psychiatric episode.
He was found one night walking around with no clothes on. He had smashed in his teeth because he believed they were radio transmitters and that people were trying to follow him.
Ms Torrens added that it was an horrific and barbaric attack and Hussain behaved like an animal on the night. There was no explaining his actions.
She pleaded with Judge Dunne for leniency because it was a one-off incident and her client had serious mental problems at the time. Thankfully, he had greatly improved in the two years since.
