{"id":579907,"date":"2026-08-02T06:30:18","date_gmt":"2026-08-02T06:30:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/579907\/"},"modified":"2026-08-02T06:30:18","modified_gmt":"2026-08-02T06:30:18","slug":"galway-spiritual-healer-receives-suspended-prison-term-for-sexually-assaulting-teenager-on-flight-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/579907\/","title":{"rendered":"Galway \u2018spiritual healer\u2019 receives suspended prison term for sexually assaulting teenager on flight \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

A 59-year old \u201cspiritual healer\u201d and Co Galway <\/a>farmer received a fully suspended prison term for sexually assaulting a then 16-year-old girl on an Aer Lingus<\/a> transatlantic flight.<\/p>\n

At Ennis Circuit Court on Friday, Judge Francis Comerford imposed a suspended 20-month prison term on Patrick Noone of Kilconnell, Ballinasloe, Co Galway for two counts of sexually assaulting an American teenager on the Boston bound flight from Shannon airport on November 15th, 2023.<\/p>\n

The court heard that Noone groped the teenager and kissed her arm and told her, \u201cOh God, I would shift you if I was 20 years younger\u201d.<\/p>\n

The teenager told the court in a victim impact statement that Noone said he was on his way to New Hampshire \u201cto heal a house\u201d.<\/p>\n

A father of four daughters, Noone said he had five or six whiskeys before getting on the flight and was on medication at the time.<\/p>\n

The court heard that the assault has resulted in the end of Noone\u2019s marriage. In a probation report, Noone said he is living with the consequences of his actions every day.<\/p>\n

In her victim impact statement, the teenager recalled the sexual assaults. She said \u201cin between brief naps, he would touch me inappropriately\u201d, and that \u201che said repugnant things to me\u201d. <\/p>\n

Noone was allocated a window seat on the flight, but sat in the middle to be beside the teenager. <\/p>\n

The teenager\u2019s mother, sister and grandmother were seated in the row across from her.<\/p>\n

Counsel for the State Sarah Jane Comerford said when Noone said he would like to \u201cshift\u201d her the teenager didn\u2019t know what the word meant because she is American.<\/p>\n

Comerford said that Noone told the teenager, \u201cI wouldn\u2019t want your Mum or Granny to see this \u2013 do you know what I mean?\u201d<\/p>\n

Noone kissed her arm, moved his hand to her thigh and then stuffed his hand down the back of the seat, grabbing her buttocks.<\/p>\n

The teenager said she gave Noone \u201cgummy bears as a deliberate distraction so I could stop him from touching me\u201d.<\/p>\n

After the teenager alerted cabin crew, the captain was told of the incident and flew the aircraft back to Shannon where Noone was arrested.<\/p>\n

The accused was brought by ambulance from the airport to University Hospital Limerick after complaining of chest pains. The cost of the diverted flight amounted to more than \u20ac28,000. <\/p>\n

Noone, when questioned by garda\u00ed, said he was horrified and shocked at what he was alleged to have done, and of which he had no recollection.<\/p>\n

In her victim impact statement the young woman said she felt trapped during the incident as the seat belt lights were still on.<\/p>\n

She said: \u201cI never felt more violated, nor more afraid. I can only assume that had I stayed he would have gone further.\u201d <\/p>\n

The teenager said: \u201cIn no world should it be accepted that anyone should put their hands on or near someone\u2019s private regions without their explicit consent \u2013 never mind a man in his fifties putting his hands on a young girl of 16.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat is an act that is \u2013 to put it simply \u2013 deeply perverse and incredibly violating.\u201d<\/p>\n

Counsel for Noone, Antoinette Simon said her client has no previous conviction and co-operated with garda\u00ed.<\/p>\n

Simon said Noone is a spiritual healer and travels abroad to carry out his healing while he has guided tours on his farm connected to his spiritual healing.<\/p>\n

Simon said Noone has attended for counselling and is now facing divorce proceedings. He spent 15 days in Castlerea Prison for a breach of a court order this year.<\/p>\n

The judge said that the sexual assaults perpetrated by Noone on the teenager did fall into the lower range of offending as it was outside the clothing but it was serious as it was perpetrated on a 16 year old.<\/p>\n

In sentencing, the judge said he was not taking into account a claim that Noone sustained an acquired brain injury from a kick to the head by a horse in October 2023.<\/p>\n

A Probation Service report on Noone concluded that he is at low risk of reoffending.<\/p>\n

Noone\u2019s name will be registered on the sex offenders\u2019 register.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A 59-year old \u201cspiritual healer\u201d and Co Galway farmer received a fully suspended prison term for sexually assaulting…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":579908,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[601,36527,4500,42,43,40,38,41,39],"class_list":["post-579907","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-aer-lingus","tag-courts-service","tag-galway","tag-headlines","tag-news","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/579907","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=579907"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/579907\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/579908"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=579907"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=579907"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=579907"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}