A taxi driver who sexually assaulted a late night passenger in his car will be sentenced next month.
The victim told gardaí that she had fallen asleep and woke up to find Gerard Gunnery (60) with his hand inside her and masturbating himself. She said he then became aggressive and threw her out of the car, leaving her on the side of the road.
Lawyers for Gunnery asked Judge Karen O’Connor to not define him for these “ten minutes of a life” which was otherwise “all of good”.
Dominic McGinn SC, defending, said his client’s actions that night were “completely out of character”. He handed in testimonials describing Gunnery as a hard working, “good man” with a “kind heart”.
Gunnery of Ellenfield Road, Whitehall, Dublin pleaded guilty at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court to sexual assault of the woman at place in Dublin city on December 23rd 2017.
After a sentence hearing on Friday, Judge O’Connor remanded Gunnery into custody to December 11th next for imposition of sentence.
During the hearing the victim addressed the court and said that a regular girls’ night out in town turned into a nightmare when she woke up in the front seat of the taxi parked outside her home.
Neighbours later told gardaí they heard a woman shouting “get off me” and “stop, don’t touch me” and saw the driver pulling the woman out of the taxi. She was screaming that her leg was stuck under the taxi and he came out and “threw her out of the way”.
She was found on the ground crying and screaming. The court heard she suffered bruising to her elbows, kneecaps and her jaw.
Gunnery made a statement to gardaí claiming that the woman had told him to “go for it” and that he wouldn’t have touched her if she hadn’t said that.
“I am really sorry. She was drunk. I was sober,” he told gardaí.
In her victim impact statement, the woman told Gunnery that “you took advantage of me when you should have taken me home”.
She said she suffered crippling guilt and shame and entertained thoughts like “I drank too much, my skirt was too short, my knee high boots were too inviting”.
She feared that her attacker was still out driving a taxi and knew whereabouts she lived and said she still suffers flashbacks and becomes upset if she sees a silver coloured taxi.
She said Christmas time last year is difficult because of her fear of drinking and being “in town” again.
Judge O’Connor told the woman that “this was not your fault” and told her she had shown great strength on the night and since.
“I sincerely hope you get to a point where you can put this behind you,” she said.
CCTV footage
Detective Sergeant Brian Hunt told Eoin Lawlor BL, prosecuting, that the woman had gone out that night to a hen party and at around 3am she decided to go home.
She was standing around Harcourt Street in Dublin city centre when Gunnery stopped his taxi. He had two other women in the car and they were going in the same direction as the victim.
She later told gardaí that she was so relieved to get the taxi that she didn’t care there were two others in.
Mr Lawlor told the court that CCTV footage from the area showed there were other taxis with their lights on ready to take a fare and said that this was noteworthy because of the circumstances in which Gunnery had stopped his taxi for the woman.
The court heard after a short conversation with the other women about paying for the fare the woman fell asleep in her seat. She said she awoke when the car stopped at an ATM in Ballsbridge and the other two women had been dropped off.
She said she used the ATM to get cash for the taxi and then got into the front seat of the car. She said the driver put his left hand on her knee and she told him “what are you doing” and brushed it off.
She fell back to sleep and awoke at her destination to Gunnery attacking her.
She said she was trying to stay in the car to locate his ID badge in order to identify him and Gunnery walked around to the passenger door.
Dt Sgt Hunt said that woman had a cast around an arm from an earlier fracture and that Gunnery pulled her out by the arm with enough force to break the strap of her handbag.
He left her “in a heap” on the side of the road and went to get back into his taxi but then got out again and dragged her out of the way of the car. She managed to take a photo of the taxi number plate as Gunnery sped off in the car and gardaí later used this to track him down.
Mr McGinn told the court that one of the most valuable aspects of the guilty plea for a victim was that “it affirms what she did was completely blameless and that the defendant was the wrongdoer”.
He handed into court a “heartfelt” letter written by his client in which Gunnery apologised “abjectly” to the victim.
Work references handed in described Gunnery as “hard working and trustworthy”. Two close friends, including a community leader, wrote that they were shocked, troubled and surprised on hearing about the assault.
Mr McGinn said this was evidence that his behaviour that night was out of character and that he was otherwise “a fine upstanding citizen”.