I tried to block out sex assault by councillor, teen tells court

A TEENAGER who was sexually assaulted by a councillor wept as she gave evidence against him yesterday.

She told Judge Melody McReynolds via videolink at Coleraine Court that the day she was sexually assaulted by 73-year-old Brian Duffin “was something I don’t want to remember”.

Duffin, who continues to sit on Antrim and Newtownabbey Borough Council despite his conviction for sexually assaulting the young woman in her own home, was jailed for four months at Antrim Magistrates Court last July.

He is appealing that conviction and sentence.

Following a short contest in July, Duffin, a father and grandfather from Cargin Road in Toomebridge, was convicted of sexually assaulting his 17-yearold victim on June 16, 2016.

The court heard then how the pensioner, who resigned from the SDLP after he was initially charged but who continues to sit as an independent, “stuck his tongue” into the mouth of the teenage girl, had one hand on her breast and the other on her inner thigh during the sexual assault.

At yesterday’s hearing at the County Appeal Court, a police interview with the victim was played to the court.

In it, the teenager recounted how Duffin sat down beside her on the sofa. After she became upset while talking about her ill grandfather, she said Duffin told her that “everything’s going to be okay” and he then asked for a kiss.

“So I went to give him a kiss on the cheek and he grabbed my head and put it towards his... he was coming forward and I couldn’t get my head back,” she told the detective.

“He kept coming at me and I couldn’t get back and then he stuck his tongue down my throat. I just froze, I panicked,” she said, demonstrating how Duffin had one hand on her breast and the other on her upper, inner thigh.

Under cross examination from defence QC Arthur Harvey, the teenager described Duffin as “touchy feely.”

He asked her why she did not tell the interviewing detective her claims of Duffin putting his tongue in her mouth until later in the interview. She said she gave an account which was then “broken down” and further details were extracted by the officer.

Mr Harvey asked her why in her initial account there was some confusion over whether the incident happened in June or July. But having recounted how there were numerous stressful events going on in her life at the time, she told Mr Harvey the day Duffin sexually assaulted her was an event “I tried to block out — it’s not something that I want to remember.”

The case continues today.