An English language student has been given a suspended sentence after he climbed into the bedroom of his 79-year-old landlady and proceeded to sexually assault her.
The 24-year-old man who cannot be named in order to protect the identity of the victim is from an Asian country.
The court heard that the man was renting a room in the woman’s house where she was also living along with two other female lodgers.
It was reported by the Irish Times that before the assault the man had been out socialising and had consumed alcohol for the first time.
The elderly victim awoke in the middle of the night and discovered the man in her bad pressing himself against her and rubbing her thighs.
She shouted at him to get out before going to alert the other lodgers of what had happened and calling the Gardaí.
The man was arrested and spent six weeks in custody before being granted bail by the High Court.
He has no previous convictions.
He had only been in Ireland for approximately three weeks at the time of the assault and has little to no English.
The court heard that before he assaulted the landlady he had gone into the room of one of the female lodgers and tried to converse with her via Google translate about sex.
The woman had told him to get out of her room.
His counsel Nocola Cox said that the man is of little means and is being supported by members of his community in Ireland.
The man offered a sum of €1,000 to the victim in token of his remorse.
Judge Jonathan Dunphy gave the man an 18 month sentence which he suspended conditionally due to mitigating factors such as the man’s guilty plea, his cooperation with Gardaí, and that it was the judge’s view that he is unlikely to reoffend.