A former army captain who claimed a sexual assault on a female solider was an \u201caberration\u201d in an otherwise \u201cglittering career\u201d has failed in his appeal against his dismissal from the Defence Forces.<\/p>\n
Ross O\u2019Shea was found guilty by a General Court Martial in October 2022 of sexually assaulting a female non-commissioned officer (NCO) following a social function at a barracks in Leinster on June 25, 2020.\u00a0<\/p>\n
He was tried in September 2022 before Military Judge Colonel Michael Campion and a court martial board.<\/p>\n
The former army captain was convicted on October 14, 2022 of sexually assaulting the woman by moving his open palms up and down her back saying \u201ccome on, come on\u201d or words to that effect at the officer\u2019s mess.\u00a0<\/p>\n
He was also found guilty of one charge of assault against the same officer contrary to Section 2 of the Non-Fatal Offences Against the Person Act 1997 by moving towards her in a manner that caused her to apprehend an assault.<\/p>\n
His dismissal was ordered as part of the sentence imposed on these two charges.<\/p>\n
A custodial sentence of six months detention in the Curragh Camp was also imposed but this was suspended for a period of one year.<\/p>\n
O\u2019Shea was charged and tried before the Court Martial with a total of 18 offences.<\/p>\n
He pleaded guilty to five charges, including charges of conduct contrary to good order and two charges of assault against two female NCO officers contrary to Section 2 of the Non-Fatal Offences Against the Person Act 1997.\u00a0<\/p>\n
He was convicted of two other charges\u00a0\u2014 sexual assault and a section 2 assault \u2014 and acquitted of a further seven charges while four more were withdrawn during the trial.<\/p>\n
The offences occurred when the former army captain attended a barbecue hosted by the covid joint taskforce during a lockdown period in the pandemic.\u00a0<\/p>\n
O\u2019Shea had been brought to the officer\u2019s mess by two female NCOs after he had been found asleep and in a state of inebriation sitting in a chair outside a gymnasium where the barbecue had earlier been held.<\/p>\n
Delivering judgement at the Court of Appeal on Tuesday, Mr Justice John Edwards said the military trial judge had approached the issue with great care and gave \u201cdetailed\u201d and \u201ccogent\u201d reasons for concluding that dismissal was required in the circumstances of this case.<\/p>\n
He said the fact O\u2019Shea was an officer in a disciplined force, and that he \u201cfell short\u201d of the standards and personal qualities expected of him, were both \u201chighly relevant facts\u201d.<\/p>\n
Mr Justice Edwards accepted that the sexual assault in this case was non-penetrative and that the physical contact involved amounted to \u201cunwelcome touching\u201d accompanied by remarks bearing a \u201csexually suggestive innuendo\u201d.\u00a0<\/p>\n
He said the Section 2 assault was confined to the causing of apprehension of unwelcome physical contact.<\/p>\n
However, the judge said assessment of gravity involves a combination of both culpability and harm done, going on to note: \u201cWhat cannot be gainsaid is that the psychological impact on both victims was significant and lasting.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
Mr Justice Edwards went on to note that if these matters had been before a civilian court, it was possible they may have been deemed as meriting a non-custodial sentence.<\/p>\n
However, he said the fact the offences occurred in the military context \u201cchanges the calculus\u201d.<\/p>\n
He said the military judge had suggested O\u2019Shea\u2019s conduct was not only criminal in nature but was \u201ccorrosive of discipline in the Defence Forces\u201d.\u00a0<\/p>\n
He said the military judge\u2019s conclusion that O\u2019Shea\u2019s conduct could not be reconciled with continued service as an officer of the Defence Forces was justified.<\/p>\n
Speaking outside court after the judgement was delivered, O\u2019Shea\u2019s two victims said they welcomed the court\u2019s decision to uphold the former army captain\u2019s dismissal from the Defence Forces.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A former army captain who claimed a sexual assault on a female solider was an \u201caberration\u201d in an…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":122624,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[54,13308,42,43,40,38,41,39],"class_list":{"0":"post-122623","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-headlines","8":"tag-courts","9":"tag-defence-forces","10":"tag-headlines","11":"tag-news","12":"tag-top-news","13":"tag-top-stories","14":"tag-topnews","15":"tag-topstories"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/122623","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=122623"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/122623\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/122624"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=122623"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=122623"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=122623"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}