{"id":596151,"date":"2026-07-21T04:01:15","date_gmt":"2026-07-21T04:01:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/596151\/"},"modified":"2026-07-21T04:01:15","modified_gmt":"2026-07-21T04:01:15","slug":"junkie-john-jailed-for-ten-months-over-schoolgirl-assault","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/596151\/","title":{"rendered":"“Junkie John” jailed for ten months over schoolgirl assault"},"content":{"rendered":"

A homeless drug user known as \u201cJunkie John from Whitechurch\u201d who sexually assaulted a 15-year-old girl on a bus has been jailed for 10 months.\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

The young victim was dressed in her school uniform when the accused rubbed her upper thigh area and stuck his hand under her skirt.<\/p>\n

Having heard the facts of the case last Friday, Judge John Hughes, sitting at Dublin Metropolitan District Court at the CCJ, imposed two sentences, each 10 months, with the second sentence suspended for two years on strict condition that the accused stays off all buses, stays away from certain areas of South Dublin, complete a course for sexual offenders, and have no contact with the victim.<\/p>\n

John Allen (53) of Whitechurch, Ballybodan, Dublin 16, pleaded guilty to counts of sexual assault in respect of the girl who was on her way home from her best friend\u2019s house.<\/p>\n

The child, who cannot be named for legal reasons, told the court that the incident has left her \u201ctraumatised\u201d and with a feeling of being \u201cunclean\u201d that she has been unable to recover from.<\/p>\n

Judge Hughes heard that the girl had been celebrating her best friend\u2019s birthday and had got on the bus to go home, sitting on the back seat before the accused sat beside her and began to rub her upper thigh before putting his hand under her school skirt.<\/p>\n

Garda Elaine Phelan told the court that the incident took place in October 2025 at approximately 8:30 pm and that the child got up and moved to another seat towards the front of the bus, only for Allen to follow her.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The child described seeing the accused at the bus stop wearing a dark jacket and blue jeans. She said he \u201clooked drunk\u201d and had a bag of chips with him.<\/p>\n

After she sat by the window in another seat, he sat next to her on the outside, preventing her from being able to move, Garda Phelan said. The court heard that he tried to move his hand up her leg, but that she shouted at him and he got off the bus at the next stop.<\/p>\n

After consulting with her sister at home, the girl told her mother what had happened the following morning, and as she described the man, her mother said she thought she recognised him, saying, \u201cThat\u2019s junkie John from Whitechurch!\u201d<\/p>\n

After the mother and daughter went to their local Garda station, the girl was interviewed by specialist officers, and CCTV was obtained, which Garda Phelan told Judge Hughes was of \u201cgood clear quality\u201d and captured the assault.<\/p>\n

She said from the CCTV, \u201cYou can clearly see him stroke her leg and move his hand under her skirt\u201d.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Garda Phelan told the court that the accused was arrested at the Nutgrove Shopping Centre on the 7th of January this year.<\/p>\n

When interviewed, he made no admissions, but when the first count of sexual assault was put to him, he said, \u201cThat\u2019s interesting, very interesting, no comment.\u201d<\/p>\n

Although the accused had sought to be admitted to bail, Garda Phealn successfully opposed this, and he has been in custody since the 28th of April.<\/p>\n

The court heard that the accused has 39 previous convictions, including two for assault, one for production of a knife, one for possession of drugs, one for obstruction, three for theft, two for criminal damage, as well as public order offences.<\/p>\n

Victim Impact Statement<\/strong><\/p>\n

Having indicated that she wished to deliver her victim impact statement by herself, the young girl said that the day she was sexually assaulted started as a \u201cgreat day\u201d but now \u201chaunts\u201d her.\u00a0<\/p>\n

She described having spent the evening with her \u201cbest friend\u201d and how she was listening to music when Allen came and sat beside her before assaulting her and following her after she \u201csaid stop and moved away.\u201d<\/p>\n

She said he \u201cdidn\u2019t stop him following me\u201d and that she \u201cfeared if he didn\u2019t get off the bus, he wouldn\u2019t have stopped.\u201d<\/p>\n

She said that she \u201ctried to wash away the unclean feeling\u201d but that she \u201ccan\u2019t wash it away\u201d.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cI didn\u2019t want to wear my uniform, or get the bus, or go to school,\u201d she said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The girl described how her teachers allowed her to wear her tracksuit at school so she would feel \u201csafe\u201d. <\/p>\n

She described being afraid to sit at the back of the bus again.<\/p>\n

\u201cEver since don\u2019t feel safe, and I look over my shoulder a lot now,\u201d she said, adding that \u201cfor the rest of my life\u201d that would be \u201cthe most traumatising day of my life.\u201d<\/p>\n

She said that the memory of her friend\u2019s birthday would always be tainted by what Allen had done to her.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt will have an effect on my future relationships because I have difficulty trusting,\u201d she said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

When Judge Hughes asked if there was anything else the girl wanted to say, she said, \u201cI want to thank you for hearing my case\u201d, and \u201cthank Garda Elaine for helping me\u201d.<\/p>\n

The girl told Judge Hughes that she is able to get the bus again now, but \u201ccan\u2019t sit at the back\u201d.<\/p>\n

She said it was \u201cVery hard to focus on anything else other than the feeling of feeling unclean.\u201d<\/p>\n

Hearing her comments, Judge Hughes told her, \u201cI get it.\u201d<\/p>\n

The court heard that the accused was on a suspended sentence at the time, which is triggered by the offence.<\/p>\n

Defending counsel, Paddy Flynn BL, said that his client has been \u201chomeless for many years\u201d and has \u201cissues with polysubstances\u201d.\u00a0<\/p>\n

He said that the accused had begun drinking at the age of eight and had started to take drugs as a teen, and claims to have been \u201cabused himself as a young boy\u201d. <\/p>\n

Mr Flynn asked the court to take into consideration that his client had offered an early guilty plea, which had spared the need for a trial.<\/p>\n

Allen, who appeared via videolink from the Midlands Prison, has a \u201chigher diploma in environmental studies\u201d from UCD, but due to his substance abisive isseis hasb;t been able to put this to use.\u00a0<\/p>\n

He said Allen was \u201ccompletely intoxicated at the time\u201d and \u201cdoesn\u2019t remember the specifics\u201d of what he had done.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Mr Flynn noted the \u201ctraumatic effect on the victim which appears to be long-term,\u201d saying that his client is\u00a0\u201cextremely remorseful\u201d.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Should the court be minded to suspend any portion of a custodial sentence, Mr Flynn asked it to \u201cincentivise rehab\u201d.<\/p>\n

When Judge Hughes asked if there were other people on the bus at the time, Garda Phelan said that there were. <\/p>\n

Turning to the girl, he asked, \u201cWhat did you shout at him? and, if it was \u201ca good shout,\u201d to which the girl replied that she had said, \u2018Stop and leave me alone! \u2018\u201d<\/p>\n

Hearing this, Judge Hughes said, \u201cGood girl.\u201d<\/p>\n

Having heard the evidence, Judge Hughes said, \u201cI\u2019m not going to finish this case today because he is in prison and it\u2019s appropriate that he be in the room to hear his punishment.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cYou don\u2019t need to come back,\u201d he told the girl, adding, \u201cHe needs to come in here to face the music.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIn my experience, and I\u2019ve been doing this for a long time, people like him have been doing this on buses to girls in school uniforms for decades\u201d, he said, adding that the girl was likely one of \u201chundreds\u201d of victims.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cI have a daughter your age,\u201d he said, before explaining that he told her\u201d, Don\u2019t sit by the window and don\u2019t sit on the back for fear she\u2019d be sexually assaulted.\u201d<\/p>\n

He advised the girl to no longer think of her best friend\u2019s birthday as the day that Allen sexually assaulted her, but as the day that she was sexually assaulted by him and \u201cstood up to him\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe will be going to jail, and when he gets out, it will be in his mind, I would imagine, he would rather not meet you, instead of you being afraid to meet him,\u201d he told her.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t think you\u2019ll be worried about meeting Mr Allen on a bus for a while,\u201d he added.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A homeless drug user known as \u201cJunkie John from Whitechurch\u201d who sexually assaulted a 15-year-old girl on a…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":596152,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[3],"tags":[9,10,252405,11802,18,13,14,6,19,17,11,12,15,16,5,73095,7,8],"class_list":["post-596151","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-breaking-news","tag-breakingnews","tag-child-sexual-assault","tag-dublin-bus","tag-eire","tag-featured-news","tag-featurednews","tag-headlines","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-latest-news","tag-latestnews","tag-main-news","tag-mainnews","tag-news","tag-sexual-assault","tag-top-stories","tag-topstories"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@ie\/116955977421091781","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/596151","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=596151"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/596151\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/596152"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=596151"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=596151"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=596151"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}