Man who offered victim of assault compensation told to pay it

A man who sexually assaulted a woman after breaking into her home after a social event organised so neighbours meet each other has been warned he must come up with €20,000 compensation quickly.

Judge John Aylmer warned Anthony Ferguson, aged 26, that he needs to make “far more accelerated progress” when he appears in court again.

Supermarket manager Ferguson, with an address at Brittania Point, Colliers Wood in London, had escaped a prison sentence after the court was told that he could get a loan from his father who runs a chain of supermarkets in the UK.

He had pleaded guilty at Letterkenny Circuit Court, Co Donegal in January this year to charges of sexual assault, burglary and threats to damage property.

The court was told that Ferguson was an “outsider” who had arrived at the event in a Donegal village in 2018.

However, Ferguson became rowdy during the evening and he was asked to leave as the bar was closing.

The victim in the case and her husband went back to their home nearby with some neighbours where they had some more drinks with friends.

Ferguson gained entry to the house, was again very rowdy and was asked to leave.

The woman and her husband went to sleep around 2am but said she was awoken by a man in the bed beside her. The man, Ferguson, said to her “I have you now.”

She realised it was the man who was rowdy earlier and her husband scuffled with him before getting him out of their home.

In her victim impact statement the woman she said said she couldn’t work for weeks after the attack and her husband, who works abroad, could not travel as she was in so much fear and they lost a major part of their earnings.

Despite the victim not seeking compensation, an offer of €20,000 was made but Mr Smyth stressed that Ferguson would repay all the money back to his father from his earnings.

However, when the case was came before the court again, Ferguson’s barrister Colm Smyth said that his client had failed to get the loan of €20,000 from his father.

Instead, he said he could lodge €500 a month as a direct debit for the victim and was confident he could soon get a loan for the balance of the compensation proposed.

Judge Aylmer said he was “not very impressed with the situation.”

He said that this could have been the case that a custodial sentence was warranted but for the charitable nature of the victim who was not averse to the suggestion of compensation.

Judge Aylmer said that with payments of €500 a month it would take more than three years to reach the €20,000 compensation and that this did not impress him.

He adjourned the case until the next sitting of the circuit court in Letterkenny in October for a final decision.