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Judge warns well-known Dublin pub over licence after sexual assault during party

The judge was addressing a company director who he had asked to come to court after a man was given a nine-month suspended sentence for sexually assaulting a co-worker on the premises.

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Today at 06:59

A well-known Dublin pub where a human rights worker sexually assaulted a colleague during an office party has been warned by a judge that a drinks licence is “a privilege, not an entitlement.”

Judge John Hughes reminded pub management that it was an offence to serve a person they knew to be intoxicated.

The judge was addressing a company director who he had asked to come to court after a man was given a nine-month suspended sentence for sexually assaulting a co-worker on the premises.

Clément Bernaudin (31) had groped the woman’s bottom, tried to kiss her and pushed himself up against her in a “prolonged and protracted” pursuit in the pub.

Judge Hughes told the director that there had been “uncontroverted evidence” the group of workers had been intoxicated on arrival at the pub that morning and proceeded to consume a large amount of alcohol throughout the day.

The party was there for up to 12 hours until that night, he said.

“During that period, they were continuously served alcohol despite evidence that the accused was barely able to stand,” the judge said. “He was swaying from side to side and had no problem getting alcohol.”

A young woman was sexually assaulted on several occasions in “open view” of others in the pub.

The judge said he wanted to make the pub aware that it was an offence to serve alcohol to an intoxicated person.

“Your holding of a licence is granted by the courts as a privilege, rather than an entitlement,” he said.

“OK,” the director replied.

Bernaudin, from Paris but with an address at the time on Kimmage Road West, Dublin, had pleaded guilty to two counts of sexually assaulting the woman on a date in the late 2010s.

The court had heard during the night, he put his hand around her waist and squeezed, grabbed her “bum cheek,” squeezed her thigh and tried to kiss her neck and lips.

On one occasion when he grabbed her, his finger was pushing into her dress near her vagina. While she was standing at the bar, he came up behind her and pushed his penis against her bottom, she said.

The first time she told him to stop, he smiled and did not reply. Later, he told her he “couldn’t take his eyes off her.”

The victim was “severely traumatised” and the assaults had life-changing effects on her.

Bernaudin was not a drinker but was “incredibly intoxicated” on the day and “thought there was chemistry between them but it was entirely one-sided”, his defence said. He was “horrified” at his own “out-of-character” behaviour and apologised.

As well as the suspended sentence, the judge told him to pay €20,000 compensation.