[Mark Gleeson]

Well the pair of them got what was coming to them

25 August 2007

Couple sentenced to three months each for having sex on DART

By Seán McCárthaigh
A COUPLE who had sex in full view of rush-hour commuters on a DART carriage last year have each been sentenced to three months in prison.

Debbie O’Connell, aged 21, and her partner Michael O’Connell, aged 27, yesterday pleaded guilty before Dun Laoghaire District Court to a charge of public indecency on July 5, 2006.

Garda Ciarán Cassidy told the court that the pair had boarded the DART at Sandycove at around 6.15pm that evening and had engaged in “a sexual indecency� before getting off the train at Bray.

“It was a busy commuter time and the train would have been very busy,� explained Garda Cassidy.

The case was first highlighted in a newspaper and gardaÃ* were able to trace the couple from CCTV footage located at train stations at Sandycove and Bray, although the DART did not have cameras inside the carriages.

The court heard that Debbie O’Connell of Cromlech Fields, Ballybrack, Co Dublin, was “deeply embarrassed and ashamed� by her behaviour.

Her solicitor, Lily Buckley, claimed O’Connell was also upset at the publicity which the case had attracted in the media, especially as her mother and other siblings were present in court.

Ms Buckley said it was also a source of immense embarrassment for her client’s family who had never been in any trouble of that kind.

She said that Michael O’Connell of Rathsallagh Grove, Shankill, Co Dublin, was similarly ashamed at his conduct.

Ms Buckley said the offence could be explained but not excused by the fact that both her clients had been using drugs.

“Both would have been completely intoxicated at the time,� observed the solicitor.

Pleading for leniency, Ms Buckley said the pair had pleaded guilty at an early stage to the offence, while the publicity and embarrassment experienced by her clients had already acted as a fairly significant punishment.

However, Judge Hugh O’Donnell replied: “We have to take into account the embarrassment to commuters.

“We can’t condone this type of behaviour.�

Garda Cassidy said one witness had come forward about the incident, while it was clear other passengers had been “mortified� by the spectacle.

O’Connell did not speak during the hearing after being led into the courtroom in handcuffs. The court heard that she is already serving a nine-year prison sentence (with five-and-a-half years suspended).

O’Connell was described as a “menace to society� by Judge Frank O’Donnell in May 2007 when she was handed down the lengthy sentence by the Dublin Circuit Criminal Court after pleading guilty to a number of robberies of young females in the south Dublin area.

The unemployed Ballybrack woman has already amassed 24 previous criminal convictions.

Michael O’Connell was also escorted to court by prison officers as he is serving a two-year prison sentence for drugs offences.

Judge O’Donnell imposed a three-month jail term of imprisonment on both parties. Their sentences will run concurrent to the ones they are already serving.

Under Section 18 of the Criminal Law Amendment act, which makes it an offence to commit an act in a public place “in such a way as to offend modesty or cause scandal or injure the morals of the community,� convicted persons can face a maximum jail term of six months and/or a fine of €635.

© Examiner 2007
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