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A homeless drug user, who is known as “Junkie John from Whitechurch”, sexually assaulted a 15-year-old girl on a bus.
John Allen (53) of Whitechurch, Ballybodan, Dublin 16, pleaded guilty to counts of sexual assault in respect of the girl who was on her way home from her best friend’s house.
The child, who cannot be named for legal reasons, told the court that the incident has left her “traumatised” and with a feeling of being “unclean” that she has been unable to recover from.
Judge John Hughes heard that the girl had been celebrating her best friend’s birthday and had got on the bus to go home, sitting on the back seat before the accused sat beside her and began to rub her upper thigh before putting his hand under her school skirt.
Garda Elaine Phelan told the court that the incident took place in October 2025 at approximately 8:30 pm and that the child got up and moved to another seat towards the front of the bus, only for Allen to follow her.
The child described seeing the accused at the bus stop wearing a dark jacket and blue jeans. She said he “looked drunk” and had a bag of chips with him.
After she sat by the window in another seat, he sat next to her on the outside, preventing her from being able to move, Garda Phelan said. The court heard that he tried to move his hand up her leg, but that she shouted at him and he got off the bus at the next stop.
After consulting with her sister at home, the girl told her mother what had happened the following morning, and as she described the man, her mother said she thought she recognised him, saying, “That’s junkie John from Whitechurch!”
After the mother and daughter went to their local Garda station, the girl was interviewed by specialist officers, and CCTV was obtained, which Garda Phelan told Judge Hughes was of “good clear quality” and captured the assault.
She said from the CCTV, “You can clearly see him stroke her leg and move his hand under her skirt”.
Garda Phelan told the court that the accused was arrested at the Nutgrove Shopping Centre on the 7th of January this year.
When interviewed, he made no admissions, but when the first count of sexual assault was put to him, he said, “That’s interesting, very interesting, no comment.”
Although the accused had sought to be admitted to bail, Garda Phealn successfully opposed this, and he has been in custody since the 28th of April.
The court heard that the accused has 39 previous convictions, including two for assault, one for production of a knife, one for possession of drugs, one for obstruction, three for theft, two for criminal damage, as well as public order offences.
Victim Impact Statement
Having indicated that she wished to deliver her victim impact statement by herself, the young girl said that the day she was sexually assaulted started as a “great day” but now “haunts” her.
She described having spent the evening with her “best friend” and how she was listening to music when Allen came and sat beside her before assaulting her and following her after she “said stop and moved away.”
She said he “didn’t stop him following me” and that she “feared if he didn’t get off the bus, he wouldn’t have stopped.”
She said that she “tried to wash away the unclean feeling” but that she “can’t wash it away”.
“I didn’t want to wear my uniform, or get the bus, or go to school,” she said.
The girl described how her teachers allowed her to wear her tracksuit at school so she would feel “safe”.
She described being afraid to sit at the back of the bus again.
“Ever since don’t feel safe, and I look over my shoulder a lot now,” she said, adding that “for the rest of my life” that would be “the most traumatising day of my life.”
She said that the memory of her friend’s birthday would always be tainted by what Allen had done to her.
“It will have an effect on my future relationships because I have difficulty trusting,” she said.
When Judge Hughes asked if there was anything else the girl wanted to say, she said, “I want to thank you for hearing my case”, and “thank Garda Elaine for helping me”.
The girl told Judge Hughes that she is able to get the bus again now, but “can’t sit at the back”.
She said it was “Very hard to focus on anything else other than the feeling of feeling unclean.”
Hearing her comments, Judge Hughes told her, “I get it.”
The court heard that the accused was on a suspended sentence at the time, which is triggered by the offence.
Defending counsel, Paddy Flynn BL, said that his client has been “homeless for many years” and has “issues with polysubstances”.
He said that the accused had begun drinking at the age of eight and had started to take drugs as a teen, and claims to have been “abused himself as a young boy”.
Mr Flynn asked the court to take into consideration that his client had offered an early guilty plea, which had spared the need for a trial.
Allen, who appeared via videolink from the Midlands Prison, has a “higher diploma in environmental studies” from UCD, but due to his substance abisive isseis hasb;t been able to put this to use.
He said Allen was “completely intoxicated at the time” and “doesn’t remember the specifics” of what he had done.
Mr Flynn noted the “traumatic effect on the victim which appears to be long-term,” saying that his client is “extremely remorseful”.
Should the court be minded to suspend any portion of a custodial sentence, Mr Flynn asked it to “incentivise rehab”.
When Judge Hughes asked if there were other people on the bus at the time, Garda Phelan said that there were.
Turning to the girl, he asked, “What did you shout at him? and, if it was “a good shout,” to which the girl replied that she had said, ‘Stop and leave me alone! ‘”
Hearing this, Judge Hughes said, “Good girl.”
Having heard the evidence, Judge Hughes said, “I’m not going to finish this case today because he is in prison and it’s appropriate that he be in the room to hear his punishment.”
“You don’t need to come back,” he told the girl, adding, “He needs to come in here to face the music.”
“In my experience, and I’ve been doing this for a long time, people like him have been doing this on buses to girls in school uniforms for decades”, he said, adding that the girl was likely one of “hundreds” of victims.
“I have a daughter your age,” he said, before explaining that he told her”, Don’t sit by the window and don’t sit on the back for fear she’d be sexually assaulted.”
He advised the girl to no longer think of her best friend’s birthday as the day that Allen sexually assaulted her, but as the day that she was sexually assaulted by him and “stood up to him”.
“He will be going to jail, and when he gets out, it will be in his mind, I would imagine, he would rather not meet you, instead of you being afraid to meet him,” he told her.
“I don’t think you’ll be worried about meeting Mr Allen on a bus for a while,” he added.
The accused was remanded in custody to appear before the court again next Monday for finalisation.
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