Man jailed for assaulting teen girls at bus stop and in hospital bed insists he is ‘no danger’ after walking free

 • Yesterday 11:20

A serial sex offender claimed he is “not dangerous” as he walked free from prison this week after being jailed for sexually assaulting two teenage girls.

Andrew O’Donovan had been jailed for rubbing his body up against a 17-year-old girl at a bus stop and for sexually assaulting another 17-year-old in her hospital bed.

He emerged from the Midlands Prison last Thursday without any bags and told a reporter he plans to go back to his rural west Cork home.

Asked if he is danger to women he replied: “No, indeed not.”

He then asked for directions, before adding in a low voice: “I’m not dangerous at all.”

O’Donovan had already stopped on the street a number of times to look for directions from various passersby, including two unsuspecting women, as he walked through Portlaoise.

The 66-year-old widower from Butlersgift, Drimoleague, Co Cork was jailed in September 2021 after admitting to sexually assaulting the teenager at a bus stop in Cork.

The conviction meant that a previously suspended 18-month sentence for the hospital attack on a teenage patient was activated with another nine months being added.

In a victim impact statement read at his trial, the young woman said she was waiting for a bus home after getting her hair done when O’Donovan approached her.

“The accused approached me and went to rub off me. I was scared and tried to make eye contact with other people pleading for help, nobody seemed to notice,” the statement read.

“He moved away and then came back and started to do the same thing. He left me with a feeling of being dirty and unclean. I feel physically sick when I think of the evening and what happened to me. I don’t feel safe anymore.

“I feel I have to cover my body completely in case I draw any unwanted attention to myself.

“It is so unfair that I am the one suffering after this. I was an innocent party minding my own business.”

Evidence was heard how O’Donovan had asked the young woman if she would meet him before lunging at her as if to touch her breasts, but she managed to avoid him.

The court heard O’Donovan had no previous convictions until the death of his wife, that he had a “meagre existence” and seemed to have no insight into his behaviour.

His defence lawyer told the court that O’Donovan was diagnosed with a hyper-activity disorder in the 1970s and was on disability.

He added that his client was an “unusual person” to talk to as he wandered off on tangents.

Trial judge Seán Ó Donnabháin said the 18-month suspended sentence imposed on O’Donovan in 2020 for his first offence had not been any sort of deterrent to him.

At a previous trial it was heard the assault on a 17-year-old girl at Cork University Hospital where O’Donovan was a patient was only stopped because his heart monitor readings shot up.

A nurse spotted the change in the monitor reading and went to the ward to check on him in case he was having a heart attack.

The teen, who was in hospital for treatment for serious injuries, been put in a room with four men when the assault happened on May 14, 2018.

She was unable to reach the emergency call button because of the seriousness of her injuries.

O’Donovan had approached the teenager in the early hours of the morning and sexually assaulted her while she lay in bed.

He initially denied touching the girl and said he was only trying to shake her hand.

In her victim impact statement the young woman said: “I thought I would be safe in hospital and never imagined I would be in danger.

“When the defendant pulled back the curtain around my bed around 5.30am and entered my cubicle and began to sexually assault me, I was petrified and helpless as the call button was above me and I couldn’t reach it due to my injuries.”

“I had to leave the hospital only 11 days into my stay due to the incident. I was meant to stay for six weeks.

“From this horrible situation I really hope paediatrics are raised to 18 years of age instead of 16 years.”

At the 2021 trial the same judge said the bus station assault was a “nasty experience” for the injured party and reactivated the 18-month suspended sentence which O’Donovan got for the hospital assault.

Judge O Donnabháin said O’Donovan seemed to be without “insight into the fact that he might be a danger to others.”

He noted that the defendant had a personality disorder of some type.

As O’Donovan was led away by prison officers he shouted “I did nothing to her” whilst shaking his medication box and insisting he needed to go home to feed his cattle.