A MAN WHO stood over an injured 64-year-old woman in a public place while masturbating and laughing has been given a two-year suspended sentence and 18 months to raise €10,000.

Maximilian Lang-Orsini (24) of no fixed abode, pleaded guilty at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court to sexual assault at Hanover Lane, Dublin on 16 November 2013.

Garda Ian O’Brien told Antonia Boyle BL, prosecuting, that on the night in question a woman was on her way to the pub when she heard someone walking behind her on Hanover Lane.

The woman turned around and saw that the accused was exposing himself to her and masturbating in front of her. She called the accused a “bastard” and a “pervert”, before saying “imagine doing this to a 64-year-old woman”.

He started laughing and she tried to run away but tripped and fell to the ground. The accused, who was still masturbating and laughing, came closer and stood over her but did not touch her.

The woman screamed for help, alerting a local who arrived to the scene and chased the accused away. The woman attended a hospital the following day and discovered that she had dislocated her shoulder during the incident.

Judge Martin Nolan spoke to Lang-Orsini directly in court and told him that his “behaviour was shameful”.

“The only reason you are not going to prison is because you have no record,” the judge continued.

He said he accepted a submission from Boyle that the reason Lang-Orsini was charged with sexual assault was because there was an apprehension by the victim that she was about to be sexually assaulted.

Judge Nolan said there was “a reasonable basis for the charge” but added that he accepted that Lang-Orsini didn’t intend to injure the woman or physically sexually assault her.

He noted that the man would now have a sexual offence on his record and took into account the “various burdens” such a conviction put on Lang-Orsini.

The judge sentenced Lang-Orsini to two years in prison which he suspended in full for two years and ordered that he raise €10,000 to be handed over to Garda O’Brien within 18 months. He said if the victim doesn’t want the money, the court will dispose of it.

Judge Nolan said he wanted to make it clear that if he decided that Lang-Orsini deserved a custodial sentence he would get one. He said the €10,000 was a punishment on him to deter him.

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Additional evidence

Garda O’Brien said in interview with gardaí, Lang-Orsini said he had gone around the Christchurch area looking for a woman to masturbate in front of and he did not pick the victim for any particular reason. He said he never had any intention of touching the woman.

Lang-Orsini has no previous convictions, is now married and his wife was present in court. The court heard that he has split his time since the incident between Canada and Germany.

Garda O’Brien agreed with Ger Small BL, defending, that it was fair to call the incident “bizarre”. He said that he had never come across something like this in all his years.

Small said her client apologised unreservedly for the crime. She said he was in Ireland attending college at the time where he became isolated, had no friends and began taking MDMA.

She said it was her instructions that her client was intoxicated on drugs at the time of the incident. She asked the judge not to impose a custodial sentence as “society in general would be better served”.