By Paul Higgins
A pub landlord and youth football coach who sexually assaulted a teenage girl by kissing her on the lips, came within a “knife-edge” of going to jail (Tues).
Imposing a five-month sentence on Patrick John Nixon, District Judge Anne Marshall suspended it for three years, warning the 61-year-old the sentence “will be hanging over you” for the next 36 months.
“This was a knife-edge decision whether you were going to Maghaberry today,” the judge warned during her scathing sentencing remarks, highlighting that Nixon did not have remorse for himself but rather “for the fact that you have found yourself in court.”
Judge Marshall was equally as critical of Nixon’s defence barrister Seamus Lannan who described the offending as “a folly” and tried to argue that it did not cross the custodial threshold.
“Your counsel described this as a folly and inappropriate,” she told Nixon, “but I consider that to be the understatement of the century … you have put your own liberty at jeopardy because the custody threshold is passed.”
At the end of his contest earlier this year Nixon, from Castle Rise in Tandragee, was convicted of a single count of sexual assault committed between 22 May and 3 June 2023.
Rehearsing the facts of the case today (Tues), a prosecuting lawyer told Armagh Magistrates Court, sitting in Newry, it was 27 May when Nixon had sent a text message to the 16-year-old, “making her feel uncomfortable.”
“The defendant said he wanted to kiss her,” the lawyer said, adding that later the same day Nixon told the teenager “how special she was to him” before “forcing his lips onto her.”
She told him no but Nixon continued to try to kiss her, said the prosecutor, adding that at some point, Nixon had also “touched her face and back and she felt uncomfortable.”
“In essence this behaviour was a folly from the moment it started,” Mr Lannon suggested.
“A folly, Mr Lannon?” Judge Marshall asked and the barrister agreed, “yes, it was a folly, it was irresponsible and wholly inappropriate.”
Mr Lannon told the court that according to his interview with a probation officer, Nixon suggested that his behaviour “was seated in his engagement with alcohol that particular evening.”
Describing Nixon as “a broken man” who knows he faces punishment, the barrister emphasised that the 61-year-old “has already felt the brunt of a social backlash against him as a consequence.”
“He knows there are certain prices to be paid, in terms of legal prices, but also in terms of social prices, and he already has felt the brunt of a social backlash against him as a consequence of that,” said Mr Lannon adding that the now ex-pub landlord had given up the bar and has no source of income.
Concluding the plea in mitigation, the barrister said Nixon had instructed him “to wish her well in her recovery – he apologises for his conduct on the day in question and he’s deeply remorseful of the consequences for her and for himself.”
In her sentencing remarks, Judge Marshall highlighted that Nixon had contested the case, “in the most unusual and egregious manner, where you made a case to the police that you did not sexually assault her.”
Despite Nixon initially claiming to police that nothing happened and he had no recollection of sending the text message, the victim was then subjected to what the judge described as “lengthy cross-examination over a considerably long and distressing period” where a consent case was put to her instead.
Describing the victim as “extremely credible and consistent,” Judge Marshall said that having denied anything happened before changing the defence case to one of consent, Nixon then “took the coward’s way out and you didn’t get into the witness box.”
The judge revealed that at the time he sexually assaulted the girl, Nixon was on probation for domestic violence towards his wife and further that he had been a coach for a local youth football team.
“Hopefully that doesn’t remain the case now,” the judge told the court, adding that having been convicted, Nixon then tried to “minimise” his behaviour to a probation officer.
“I don’t think you’ve fully taken responsibility for it yet, and you certainly haven’t fully shown remorse,” she told the convicted sex offender.
Turning to the Victim Impact Statement, the judge said the report described how the teenager has feelings of “fear, disgust and distress, shame and anxiety.”
She declared however, the only person who should be feeling any shame is Nixon and Nixon alone – “she did absolutely nothing wrong and has absolutely nothing to feel any shame about.”
In addition to the suspended jail sentence, Nixon was told he will have to sign the police sex offenders register for the next seven years.
Judge Marshall also ordered that Nixon had to pay £1,000 compensation to his young victim.
ENDS
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