Fermanagh man's remand in custody for child sexual assault 'unfair', Judge rules

The accused, who is aged in his 20s and cannot be named to protect the young child’s identity, allegedly committed the offence in September 2020.

A detective constable told Dungannon Magistrates Court the charge could be connected.

It emerged, while released on bail after the initial report, a further sexual assault allegedly occurred involving an adult female, for which he was arrested and bailed again.

In respect of the child, the defendant allegedly got into the youngster’s bed, kissed her, and “tried to go further”.

She told him to stop, which he did, before warning her to tell no-one.

The court heard Social Services received a referral from a school in March, after the child passed a note disclosing inappropriate behaviour of her mother’s ex-partner.

The defendant was arrested but maintained the incident never happened and he had never been in the child’s bed nor kissed her.

He denied mistaking the child for her mother or having a sexual interest in young girls, insisting: “The allegation is malicious.”

As the child had not given a statement at that point, the accused was released pending further enquiries.

Bail terms banned contact with his ex-partner and her child, with there was no unsupervised contact with any children.

He was also prohibited from consuming alcohol.

Earlier this month the child provided a statement, which was delayed due to her fear of going back to police as the defendant was breaching bail.

The detective explained on April 10, the ex-partner reported receiving two phone calls from the defendant who she recognised by his voice stating: “You’ve ruined my life.”

This was followed by two texts messages containing the same comment from an unknown number.

The defendant denies this.

Quizzed on the alleged bail breaches the detective replied: “We decided to wait until the matter was ready for court by having the child’s statement and (the accused’s) phone examined.”

This has since been done with a negative result, although a second phone was recovered during his most recent arrest which has yet to be checked.

There followed “a completely unrelated sexual assault” on an adult female and an arrest for that, the accused was found to be intoxicated and initially provided false details.

He was released on bail again pending further enquiries.

Complaints from his local community then came in around his behaviour while drunk but: “It remained our view it was better to wait until we had evidence,” the detective advised.

On April 21, the ex-partner reported seeing the defendant in a takeaway where he: “Shouted, swore and videoed her.”

Three days later he reported her to police for videoing him, but it was established she was at home all day.

An elderly female, unconnected to the case, then reported him: “High on drink and drugs, being aggressive and calling her names on the street.”

He admitted this and apologised.

Within days, he was arrested for allegedly putting a hammer through a car windscreen and again released on bail.

Matters moved to May 3 when police “provided advice” after he was reportedly abusive to passers-by.

Opposing bail the detective said the accused may commit further offences and potentially interfere with witnesses. She accepted alcohol is a major factor, and none of the bail breaches had been brought to court.

District Judge Michael Ranaghan stated: “More thought needs to go into these cases when bail is opposed, where there are alleged breaches, in alleged serious offending. We are looking at a factual matrix which has declined since the original information was given to police.”

He continued: “It would be entirely unfair to remand this man in custody on that basis.”

Bail was set at £500 with the accused banned from contacting the child or her mother and entering the area of their home.

He is to be electronically tagged and cannot be intoxicated in public.

The case was adjourned to Enniskillen Magistrates Court for mention next month.