Man (19) remanded on sex assault at Derry Court

A man has been remanded in custody at Derry Magistrate's Court charged with sexually touching a female and the offence is aggravated by domestic abuse. 

Darragh McGrath (19) of no fixed abode appeared charged with assaulting a female on May 10 occasioning her actual bodily harm.

He was also charged with sexually touching the same female, assaulting her and assaulting a police officer all on the same date.

A police officer connected the accused to the charges and opposed bail. 

The court heard police received a 999 call from the alleged victim who was described as being 'stressed'.

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Police attended and found the woman to be 'distraught' claiming she had been assaulted by McGrath who was found asleep in the flat.

The court heard that the woman had visible injuries to her face with bleeding from her lip and she claimed McGrath had slapped her.

She also said the defendant had pulled her trousers down and tried to have sex with her despite her telling him to stop.

When McGrath was being arrested he kicked out at police. 

The defendant made a prepared statement in which he denied the offences.

Bail was opposed due to the risk of reoffending as McGrath had only been released from prison on May 1.

Defence counsel Stephen McNicholl said the alleged injured party was unlikely to co-operate with the case and it would be 'disproportionate' to remand him in custody. 

District Judge Oonagh Mullan said McGrath had 119 previous convictions with 25 of them for assault. 

She said that the charges especially the sexual offence was serious and she was not minded to grant bail. 

McGrath was remanded in custody to appear again on June 5.