Former Healthcare Worker Jailed For Sexual Assault On TLC Maynooth Nursing Home Resident.

Saturday, 10 June 2023 15:33

The incident occurred at the TLC Centre on the Straffan Road in Maynooth.

A former healthcare worker has been sentenced to 21 months in prison for sexually assaulting an elderly resident of a nursing home in Kildare, where he worked three years ago.

According to breakingnews.ie, Michael Tuohy (51) of Beaufield Avenue, Maynooth pleaded guilty before a sitting of Naas Circuit Criminal Court to a charge of engaging in a sexual act with a protected person contrary to Section 21 of the Criminal Law (Sexual Offences) Act 2017.

The court heard that Tuohy had digitally penetrated his victim, who suffered from dementia, while he was changing her incontinence pad.

The offence occurred on a date unknown between September and November 2020 at the TLC Centre, Straffan Road, Maynooth, where Tuohy worked as a healthcare assistant.

Sentencing the accused to 21 months in prison, Judge Martin Nolan said it was “a very distressing case for everyone involved.”

Judge Nolan said Tuohy’s offence was a very serious crime against a protected person who was in a vulnerable and defenceless state.

The judge said the headline sentence for the offence was one of up to five years in prison but he acknowledged that Tuohy had submitted an early guilty plea and had “made the case against himself essentially.”

He also acknowledged that the accused was unlikely to reoffend and would suffer public ridicule and shame and be placed on the Sex Offenders Register which he observed “will be a punishment in itself.”

Addressing the victim’s family, Judge Nolan urged them to “not beat yourself up” over placing their mother in a good nursing home where they expected she would be OK.