Man engaged in lewd behaviour in front of passengers on Laois train
Portlaoise Train Station
“WILL the real Mr Boudjemaa please stand up,” were the opening words of Judge Andrew Cody when a man was brought before him charged with, among other things, masturbating twice on a train.
“We have just discovered his real name,” said the prosecuting Det Garda O’Brien.
The detective said that when cautioned on the first charges of theft of a set of wireless air buds and to engaging in threatening, abusive and insulting behaviour, the defendant replied: “I don’t speak English.” When the charge of possession of a false passport was put to him, he replied: “Yes. True.” When two charges of engaging in sexually lewd behaviour by masturbating in public was put to him, he replied: “I might have touched my private parts’’ and “I can’t remember.” Det O’Brien said that he had ascertained the defendant’s correct date of birth and identified his mother and father.
Before the court on the above charges was Mohamed Boudjemaa (35) of no fixed address.
His solicitor Philip Meagher said that his client was pleading guilty to all the charges.
Det O’Brien said on 28 June this year, a woman boarded the Limerick to Dublin train and fell asleep. She woke a short time later to find the defendant sitting beside her, his hand on his crotch and masturbating outside his trousers. She then discovered that her air pods had been taken from her pocket while she slept.
She shouted at the accused to go away, which he did, but he sat beside another woman further down the train and again began masturbating himself outside his trousers.
Det O’Brien said that when arrested, Mr Boudjemaa was watching a pornographic movie on his phone and he told him to f**k off.
He said that his enquires led to him discovering that the accused has ten previous convictions registered against him in France that included sexual assault, drug possession, violence without a weapon, thefts and burglaries.
He said other enquires led to him learning that the accused had used ten different names in several European countries, including France, Germany, UK, Spain and the Netherlands. He said on one occasion the accused had tried to pass himself off as being a minor, under the age of 18, in one of the countries.
“He was just bouncing around Europe, for want of a better word,” said Det O’Brien.
He said that while he enquired from the France authorities whether Mr Boudjemaa had been placed on the sex offenders list in that country, he had yet to receive a reply to that question.
Mr Meagher said that his client had entered Ireland from Spain in 2024. He applied for asylum, was refused and is now appealing that decision, to which Det O’Brien said: “He tried to claim asylum under a different name.” Mr Meagher said that Mr Boudjemaa was staying with a friend in Arklow, to which Judge Cody said: “He told me previously that he was living in Kerry and then in Carlow.
“It was the Arklow address he gave to the court last week and it was the address in his notebook, that seems to be his little bible,” said Mr Meagher.
The solicitor said that he would ask the court to disregard any evidence relating to the sex register in France, as no evidence had been provided on that issue.
Det O’Brien said that when arrested, the accused “seemed to be under the influence of alcohol. He was drunk.” “He has very little recollection of the events,” said Mr Meagher, who said his client had been held in custody since 26 June in both Cloverhill and Wheatfield prisons and was not dealing with his incarceration well with no friends and difficulty in communicating with other people because of the language barrier.
“He was very intoxicated on the day and his behaviour was confined to himself. He lost control of himself because of his intoxication,” said the solicitor.
Judge Cody described Mr Boudjemaa’s behaviour in front of the two women as “disgusting and depraved.” He said: “Masturbating in public is not a sexual offence. I couldn’t put him on the sex register even if I wanted to.” He sentenced Mr Boudjemaa to three months in prison for the theft of the air buds, nine months for using a false passport, four months each for masturbating on the train and took the other public order offence into consideration, giving him a total of 20 months in prison.
Judge Cody said that he would write to the minister for justice for the immediate deportation of Mr Boudjemaa and to not allow him back into this country.
Mr Meagher applied to fix recognisance in the event his client wished to appeal the sentences, to which Judge Cody fixed a €100 own bond with an independent surety of €10,000 or a cash lodgement of €10,000 and granted free legal aid.
