Burglar who sexually assaulted woman after community gathering avoids jail

ireland
Burglar Who Sexually Assaulted Woman After Community Gathering Avoids Jail
Anthony Ferguson (27) escaped a prison sentence last January after agreeing to pay his victim €20,000 which he said he could get from his father who owned a chain of supermarkets in London.
Share this article

Stephen Maguire

Anthony Ferguson broke into the home of the woman in July 2018 after a community gathering involving storytelling, fun activities and food in a Co Donegal village.

The victim was serving drinks when a man who was not local to the area, later identified as Ferguson, became rowdy and was asked to leave as the bar was closing.

Advertisement

The victim and her husband went back to their home nearby with some neighbours where they had some drinks with friends and Ferguson gained entry to the house, was again very rowdy and was asked to leave.

The couple went to sleep around 2am, but the terrified victim revealed she was awoken by a man in the bed beside her.

The man, Ferguson, now 27-years-old, said to her: "I have you now."

The terrified woman jumped up and alerted her husband screaming at him to get the man out of the house.

Advertisement

Ferguson was later arrested and pleaded guilty to charges of sexual assault, burglary and criminal damage at Letterkenny Circuit Court in January.

Violated

His victim said she could have written page after page about how violated she had felt after the incident, could not work for weeks after the attack and was going around her house locking doors all the time.

Her husband, who works abroad, could not travel as she was in so much fear, causing them to lose a major part of their earnings.

She said she wanted Ferguson, from Co Fermanagh but with a previous address at Brittania Point, Colliers Wood in London, to stand up and admit what he had done and that his behaviour was atrocious and he should be disgusted and ashamed of himself.

Advertisement

Ferguson escaped a prison sentence last January after agreeing to pay his victim €20,000 which he said he could get from his father who owned a chain of supermarkets in London for whom he worked.

He appeared in court again in July but said he still did not have the compensation, at which point Judge John Aylmer said he wanted to see "far more accelerated progress".

However, the court was told on Wednesday that as a result of the publicity from the case the offer of the loan had been withdrawn and Ferguson had lost his job, leaving him with no way of funding another proposal to pay his victim €500 a month.

His barrister, Ciaran O'Rourke, told the judge his client had "tried his best" but had no income and no way of paying the victim the €20,000 compensation.

Advertisement

Out of character

Before passing sentence, Judge Aylmer asked where the accused was currently living and if he could get an address in the Republic of Ireland. Ferguson replied that he could get a place to stay locally in Co Donegal and would find a more permanent address.

Before mitigation, the judge said he placed the burglary in the mid-range of such offences, meriting six years in prison, the sexual assault also in the mid-range, meriting four years in prison and placed the criminal damage at the lower end of the scale, meriting 18 months in prison.

He added that on the date of the offence, Ferguson was 24-years-old and had no previous convictions.

The judge said it appears these offences were very much out of character and the only explanation for it was that Ferguson was "literally out of his mind with alcohol", but added this was not an excuse but an explanation for what he called his "bizarre behaviour".

Advertisement

The judge said he accepts Ferguson is genuinely remorseful and ashamed of his behaviour and that he has tried to rehabilitate from his addictions to alcohol and other substances with limited success. Due to these factors, Judge Aylmer reduced the sentence to one of four years in prison.

However, he added that because of the absence of previous convictions and the particularly unusual features of the case, he was taking what he called the "unique steps" in suspending the entire sentence for a period of four years dependent on Ferguson entering a bond to keep the peace for that time.

The judge ordered Ferguson to comply with all the directions of the Probation Services and said he must live in the Republic of Ireland for that time.

Read More

Message submitting... Thank you for waiting.

Want us to email you top stories each lunch time?

Download our Apps
© BreakingNews.ie 2024, developed by Square1 and powered by PublisherPlus.com