Wicklow Garda Handed 6 Year Jail Term For Sexually Assaulting Woman

A garda who falsely imprisoned and sexually assaulted a woman in a garda station in County Wicklow has been jailed for six years.

William Ryan aged 41 was convicted by a Dublin Circuit Criminal Court jury last year of three counts of sexual assault and one count of false imprisonment of the woman at Aughrim Garda Station, Main Street, Aughrim on September 29, 2020.

He has been in custody since the guilty verdicts were handed down.

The victim in the case, who can't be named to protect her anonymity, told the court that she felt “broken” and “degraded” during the trial process.

During the trial, Ryan took the stand and gave a false version of events that day – later described by the prosecution as “badly-written erotica”.

Sentencing Ryan to six years, Judge Elma Sheahan said: “Members of the public must be able to have trust and confidence in their gardaí.” She said Ryan's offending was “a breach of trust involving a member of An Garda Siochana and the community he was there to serve and certainly not abuse”.

The maximum sentence for sexual assault is 10 years and the maximum for false imprisonment is life.

Judge Sheahan set a headline sentence of eight years, which she reduced to six years taking mitigation into account, including Ryan's prior good character, long work history and family situation.

She backdated the sentence to when Ryan went into custody last year.