Watched woman as she used town toilet

A SLIGO man who admitted watching a woman as she used a public toilet in the town has been put on a Probation Order for a year at the district court. Thirty-two-year-old Mark Farrell of Shalomar Hostel, Finisklin, Sligo, pleaded guilty to a charge of using threatening and abusive behaviour on August 21 last year at Quayside.

Sergeant Derek Butler told the court that gardai got a report of the defendant following a female into the public toilets at Quayside. He was watching her as she used the public convenience.

The woman screamed and the defendant was later arrested and charged.

The court heard he had 11 previous convictions. The court was told there was nothing of a similar nature in the defendant’s past. Defence solicitor Tom MacSharry said this was a very frightening experience for the injured party. The defendant was very remorseful and was sending a heartfelt apology to the injured party.

He had nothing similar in his past, and had been engaging with the mental health services which did not excuse his actions and he was very apologetic which can be seen from the pre-sentence report.

Judge Kevin Kilrane asked for the injured party to be contacted. He said that in matters of this nature he always let the victim have a chance to have their say. The victim did not wish to attend court, but the court heard that since the incident she was afraid to go near public toilets. It was a very distressing matter. The defendant told the court he was “deeply sorry” for the incident. He was “not in the right frame of mind at the time and was on the wrong medication”. The defendant was now on the “correct medication”. “It won’t ever happen again,” he said. Sergeant Derek Butler asked the defendant if he had any explanation for what he did. He replied: “I don’t have an explanation. I was not in the right frame of mind and I will not sit here and lie.”

The sergeant said this was a big invasion of a person’s privacy. The defendant said if he was “not in that state of mind, I would never have done it.”

He told the court he was currently homeless and had been homeless for a long time, but was hoping to get on with his life.

The defendant had been with social services and the Simon Community.

He was from a family of 12, was under medical care and was attending medical appointments. Judge Kevin Kilrane said he was “not sure what matter of man I am dealing with”. He said that usually this type of matter would have come up before now and there was “no pattern here”. The judge said he was inclined to accept that was an aberration. It was a “serious issue” and the court wanted to make sure this type of behaviour does not happen again.

He was remanded on continuing bail until April 21 and placed on a Probation Order for a year.