Daily Mirror (Northern Ireland)
‘I’d grope anything’ DUP man gets 220hrs service
A DUP councillor convicted of sexually assaulting a nursing colleague has been given 220 hours community service.
Ian Stevenson was also put on the sex offenders register for five years after being found guilty of squeezing the woman’s breast at a care home in Co Antrim.
Belfast Magistrates Court heard the 49-year-old nurse and former mayor of Ballymoney could now be at risk of losing both his job and his home.
Stevenson maintains his innocence and is set to appeal the conviction.
But he was told he is entitled to limited credit for contesting allegations he carried out the assault and then joked that he would “grope anything”.
District Judge Amanda Henderson said: “The injured party had to come to court and was clearly extremely distressed in her testimony.”
The trial heard Stevenson allegedly asked for a hug while talking to the woman in a corridor in April 2017.
She claimed that after raising her arms Stevenson, of Headlands Avenue in Ballymoney, grabbed her breast. During the hearing she described responding by pushing him away and telling him “no”, adding the encounter left her shocked and frightened.
She claimed: “He just basically tried to laugh it off and made the joke, ‘You know me, I would grope anything... well, not anything’.”
Stevenson’s appeal against his conviction is expected to be heard early next year.