Paddy McCourt, a former international football player, has had his sexual assault conviction overturned. Mr McCourt was found guilty in May of inappropriately touching a woman in a bar in Londonderry in January 2022. However, he denied the charge. He was given a three-month suspended sentence in July. Recently, a court in Derry quashed that conviction after prosecutors offered no evidence. Defence counsel, Eoghan Devlin, said that although there had been “a series of failures” in the case, no one doubted the young woman had been assaulted, but not by Paddy McCourt.
Paddy McCourt played for Celtic between 2008 and 2013, and also represented Northern Ireland 18 times, scoring two goals. In a statement outside the court, his solicitor, Ciarán Shiels, described his client’s conviction as a “grave miscarriage of justice”. Mr Shiels said the former footballer had been “very shabbily treated by the PSNI in this city”, and had never have been charged let alone been put through the ordeal he faced for the guts of two years.
Although Judge Philip Babington granted the appeal, he reminded everyone in the court that there had been a victim in the case. A police spokeswoman said the PSNI would not be issuing any further comments on the case. However, people are still debating this case, with some supporting Mr McCourt’s account while others believe the victim’s claims. The court’s ruling may have absolved Mr McCourt of the charges against him, but it may still fuel people’s opinions of where the blame lies
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