A 55-YEAR-OLD man has received a suspended jail sentence and been placed on the Sex Offenders Register after being convicted of sexually assaulting a woman in her Ederney home early last year.

John McGullion, of Lisnagort Court, Omagh, strenuously denied molesting the woman, who cannot be named to protect her identity, on a date between January 1 and 31, 2015.

However, he was found guilty of the offence after a contested hearing before Fermanagh Magistrates Court in May of this year.

The case was then adjourned to allow for the preparation of a pre-sentence report.

Taking to the witness stand during the contest, the injured party had told the court that a man had called to her house one morning in January last year at around 9.30am and knocked on her door.

She said that she had answered the door and was “really shocked” to see a man she knew only as ‘John’ standing there.

Outlining how she knew him, she told the court that he had carried out some landscaping work at her place of employment two or three years before.

The woman alleged that the man had then asked her three times to give him a kiss, but that she had replied: “No way.”

She told the court that the man grabbed her by the shoulder and kissed her on the forehead, before he left.

Asked by the prosecution lawyer how she felt, she replied: “I felt disgusted and he shouldn’t have done it... I told him to get out and he left immediately.”

The injured party confirmed that she had not reported the incident to the police at that time, adding:

“I was never involved with the police before. It never entered my head.”

However, the woman said she reported it to the police in July 2015, after the same man had again called to her house.

On this occasion, he banged the door several times and tried the door handle, before leaving after around 10 minutes.

Meanwhile, defending counsel, Brian O’Sullivan, told last week’s sentencing hearing that his client had attended court with his brother and also had the support of his wife and other family members.

While not wishing to “minimise” the offence, the barrister said it had consisted of a “single kiss to the forehead” and there had been no physical violence.

Urging the judge to consider imposing a Probation Order, Mr O’Sullivan said that his client came from a stable background, had no issue with alcohol or violence and was in employment.

The barrister added that, while the defendant accepted the outcome of the contested hearing, he had been given “clear instructions” to appeal the conviction.

District judge, Nigel Broderick, questioned whether probation was a realistic option in the case, given that the defendant had continued with his denials.

Mr Broderick also said that McGullion had been convicted of a similar type of offence in January 2012, when he had been given the benefit of a three-year Probation Order designed to prevent re-offending.

Ruling that the custody threshold had been crossed on this occasion, the judge imposed a three-month prison term, which he then suspended for two years.

He also placed McGullion on the Sex Offenders Register for a period of five years.

The defendant was subsequently granted his own bail of £500 to appeal against the conviction and sentence.

Under the terms of his bail, the judge decreed that McGullion must have no contact with the injured party and is banned from entering the village of Ederney.