A groper told gardaí who arrested him for sexually assaulting a woman on a city street: "It's her fault, she should have covered up."

Richard Duncan (42) bragged that he was "tall and handsome" as he blamed the victim for what happened, saying it was "not his fault" as she had "nothing on".

Gardaí saw him grab a nightclubber's bottom after the woman had left Copper Face Jacks. The woman, a medical student in her 20s, had earlier been "cat-called" by Duncan and was too scared to confront him.

Judge Paula Murphy found him guilty of sexual assault and adjourned sentencing at Dublin District Court.

Duncan, from Carrig Villas, Greystones, Co Wicklow, had pleaded not guilty.

The woman said she came out of the nightclub with a friend in the early hours of February 15, 2017. While walking on Camden Street they first passed Duncan, who they did not know.

"He said to me as he was walking by 'you're looking well', or something like that," the victim said.

The two friends got food in a takeaway and then, half an hour later, met Duncan again as they walked back to the club. After he had gone by, the victim said, he "grabbed at me just above my bum".

"I told him something along the lines of 'go away', I was taken aback, I wasn't expecting it to happen, I was upset," she said.

In cross examination, the woman told defence barrister Lydia Daly she had been drinking earlier, but not a huge amount and she "fully comprehended what was going on".

She made a Garda statement, but withdrew it as she had to prioritise her college work.

However, she proceeded to give evidence in the case.

Detective Garda Orla Moynihan said she was the observer in a patrol car driving up Camden Street at 2.50am when she saw two women walking past a man in a long coat. "I observed him grab the backside and buttocks of the female in a red dress," the garda said.

When gardaí approached Duncan "he told us to f**k off and we only work for Denis O'Brien", she said.

He was taken in the back of the car to a Garda station and while still under caution, he said: "It's her own fault, she had nothing on. Not my fault, she didn't complain. I'm tall and handsome, women are chasing me. She should have covered up."

Duncan had been in custody for a week after he went missing in the middle of the trial and was arrested and detained. Judge Murphy granted bail and adjourned sentencing to next year.

Irish Independent