A Portadown man once jailed for attempted murder could find himself back behind bars after groping a domiciliary care assistant.
Following a brief half hour contest at Craigavon Magistrates Court on Thursday, 58-year-old Robert Andrew Coulter was convicted of sexually assaulting the woman on 15 December 2022.
District Judge Trevor Brown said his decision came down to a matter of credibility “and I have to say I have no difficulty in accepting the evidence of the victim”.
“She is a professional woman engaged in providing domiciliary care and the reasons advanced by the defendant for what could only be an invention on her part are unsupported by any evidence,” said the judge, describing Coulter’s claims as “inherently improbable in any event.”
“I am completely satisfied that he behaved towards her in the way that she alleges and that he is consequently guilty of the matters before the court,” concluded Judge Brown.
Giving evidence the victim told the court how she had been providing domiciliary care for Coulter at his home on Union Street in Portadown for about six months before the incident.
She described how she had gotten to know him and his family having spent time in his home, sometimes two or three times a day.
The prosecutor asked how she got on with Coulter and she told him “to tell yioi the truth we got on very well at the start,” describing the defendant as a “jokey character.”
The court heard that on December 15, 2022, the carer had completed her duties and had gotten up to leave when Coulter told her “there was a mark on the back of my trousers.”
“I was wiping the mark away and he says no you’re not getting it, come here and I’ll get it so I walked over and thought nothing of it,” the victim recounted.
Instead of dusting off whatever was apparently on her trousers however, Coulter “groped my bottom area and front area with both hands,” she told the judge.
“When he did this I was so took back and I almost kind of froze in the moment and said oh I better go so I walked to the door but within the time of me walking to the door Andy was able to get there before I was and he blocked me in.
“Within that moment he came almost like he was going to give me a hug and he said ‘are you sure you want to leave’ and he grabbed me again with both hands touching the front me and the back of me.
“I don’t know how I got the force but I got the hold of the handle and was able to push the handle down and get out past him as quick as I could and I do not know how because he must be 6’4”, a strong man, a big man.
“I’m 5’9 and the outcome could’ve been a lot different if I didn’t get out,” said the witness.
Giving evidence on his own behalf, Coulter told his defence counsel Grant Powles “I did not do that at all – I do not do things like that.”
“It’s just not decent and I have never done that to anybody,” Coulter claimed, declaring that “I have far too much respect, dignity, love and respect” to behave in such a manner.
He further claimed that the victim had told him on an earlier occasion that “she wanted to work in the office” and wanted to start her own care home so to his mind, she was trying to concoct a false claim that would have her doing administrative duties as well as a financial compensation package.
“This is about money,” Coulter told the PPS lawyer during the cross examination, “she told me she would get at least £1million.”
The lawyer put to him that he had groped her bottom and vaginal area over her clothes but Coulter was adamant that “never in a million years” would he do that.
The prosecutor argued that given the attack on the victim’s character, he was entitled to put Coulter’s criminal record before the court but Judge Brown disagreed and then proceeded to convict the creep.
If he had allowed the record to be disclosed, the court would have heard how Coulter was handed an 11-year jail sentence in 2000 for the attempted murder of a hero who he shot in the head as he was being disarmed.
The court heard then how George McCoo had been playing football with his son and other youngsters in Craigwell Avenue, Portadown on July 31, 1999 when a drunken Coulter, armed with a Czech assault rifle, staggered into the street.
He cocked the weapon but Mr McCoo, having cleared the street of petrified children, tackled him and the pair struggled and fought over the lethal firearm but Coulter then pulled out a revolver and shot at Mr McCoo, wounding him in the head.
Jailing Coulter for attempted murder and possessing the firearms, Mr Justice McLaughlin said that but for the “exemplary bravery” of Mr McCoo, “a community’s worst nightmare might have come true.”
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