Serving garda convicted by jury of sexually assaulting woman in garda station

A garda has been found guilty of sexually assaulting and falsely imprisoning a woman in a garda station in County Wicklow.

The jury in the Dublin Circuit Criminal Court trial of William Ryan returned the unanimous guilty verdicts this Friday after around three and-a-half hours of deliberations.

Ryan's evidence of a highly-charged sexual encounter with the woman, who came to the garda station to discuss getting her son's car back, was described by prosecution counsel as like “badly-written erotica”, “implausible” and “incredible”.

The 41-year-old had pleaded not guilty to three counts of sexual assault and not guilty to one count of false imprisonment of the woman at Aughrim garda station, Main Street, Aughrim, County Wicklow on September 29, 2020.

Ryan had been the only garda stationed at Aughrim since 2013, the court heard.

The jury was told he was a serving garda but the court heard in the absence of the jury that he had been suspended from duty pending the outcome of the criminal proceedings.

There was no reaction from Ryan when the verdicts were handed down. Judge Elma Sheahan thanked the jury for its service and set a sentence date of October 7.

Defence counsel, Breffni Gordon BL, said his client is the father of a young family and he asked the court to give his client time to put arrangements in place for their care.

He also noted that his client is a serving member of An Garda Siochana and “all of that is going to come to an end it seems”.

Judge Sheahan acknowledged the defence submissions, but said Ryan would have been aware of these issues during the trial.

She remanded him in custody until the sentence date.

As the verdict was read, the complainant sobbed softly and was comforted by her husband. 

Members of Ryan's family were also in court to support him. After the court rose, he could be seen crying. Members of his family, including his wife, sat with him in the defendant's box to comfort him while he spoke with his counsel before being taken into custody.

It was the State's case that Ryan prevented the complainant from leaving Aughrim garda station and sexually assaulted her three times. The woman had gone to the garda station for advice about retrieving her son's car, which had been seized by gardai in County Carlow the previous day.

She told the court that prior to attending the station, she had a phone discussion with Ryan who insisted she come to the garda station to sort out the matter. The court heard he told her to “wear something tight” before hanging up.

The woman told the court that at the station, Ryan sexually assaulted her twice by slapping her bottom and groping her breast. She said he then “ushered” her upstairs, where he masturbated as she stood facing away from him and that he sexually assaulted her again by digitally penetrating her vagina.

The court heard that before being taken upstairs, the woman showed Garda Ryan a photo of herself in her swimwear in an attempt to distract him.

Ryan took the stand during the week-long trial and told the jury the woman showed him “raunchy” photos, cupped her buttocks, flashed her breast at him and suggestively asked if she could give him a “hand” with anything. He said he decided to go upstairs in the station to masturbate and told her she was free to either leave or join him.

He alleged the woman then followed him upstairs and masturbated him in a shower room, while facing away from him at his direction because it was during the Covid pandemic. He told the court he was “hot under the collar” and the encounter was fully consensual.

Ryan is married with children, the court heard. His wife was in court throughout the trial to support him.

In his closing address to the jury, Maurice Coffey SC, prosecuting, said the woman had only two hours of sleep the night before due to the issue with her son's car, that she had a sinus infection at the time and was feeling “lousy”.

“Is that someone who would be up for gratuitous sexual action a little after 10am in the morning in a garda station?” he said.

“Is that credible?,” he asked.

He noted that the court had heard evidence from the woman's husband, whom she confided in that evening. “If it was consensual naughty sexual activity in a garda station as described, surely the last person she would be telling is her husband,” he said.

He said the issue of the woman's Snapchat photos, some of which were shown to the jury, was a “red herring” and  “designed to embarrass her”. He queried why the defence described photos of the woman in her swimwear as “explicit”.

“Are we living in Victorian times?”

Ryan told the court the woman sent him images privately on Snapchat, but the jury heard evidence from a specialist garda that no evidence of Snapchat was found on his phone and that even if he had deleted the app, it would have left a trace.

The prosecution said the woman was a “thoroughly credible witness” and that Ryan's account was “self-serving, completely implausible” and mirrored the woman's account in many ways, except when it came to the issue of consent.

The court heard Ryan first told gardaí “nothing happened” when they came to his home a month after the alleged offence.

Mr Coffey said it was a “terrifying event” for the woman, who had come to a garda station seeking assistance and he urged the jury to return guilty verdicts.

In the defence closing address, Mr Gordon said there was no violence or threat of violence involved, that there was nothing to prevent the woman from leaving at any time and that she left the garda station on the day in question and “got on with things as if nothing happened”.