A shop owner was ‘caught red handed’ entering the home of an employee and carrying out a sex act in her bed.
Liam McMahon, from Lisburn, Northern Ireland, pleaded guilty to a charge of criminal damage and threatening and aggressive behaviour under the Stalking Act, following the incident on December 8, 2022.
Laganside Magistrates Court heard that on the day in question McMahon had been seen on CCTV installed by the victim’s husband entering their bedroom naked before taking a pair of her underwear, entering her bed and masturbating.
The victim, Mrs Townsend and her husband Mr Townsend had suspected that something had been going on within their property for a number of months, with items being moved in their bedroom and they did not know the reason why.
This had caused a significant amount of stress for the couple and put a strain on their relationship and as a result they had the cameras installed in their home to discover what was going on.
On the morning of December 8, McMahon admitted to taking Mrs Townsend’s keys from the pocket of her coat in work before going to her property after her husband had left to go to work himself.
While in the house her husband received a notification on his phone alerting him to someone being in their property, with his father-in-law then seeing McMahon leaving it a short time later, reported BelfastLive.
The court heard that Mrs Townsend had known McMahon all of her life, with her working for him for 14 years at a shop that he owned on the Grosvenor Road in West Belfast.
Other family members also worked at businesses belonging to McMahon.
In a victim impact statement read to the court, Mrs Townsend said that ‘she was living a life sentence’ as a result of McMahon’s actions which were deemed to be a ‘violation of the highest degree’.
She and another family member were also forced to leave their jobs.
A solicitor representing McMahon said that her client had expressed remorse and regret for his actions and that he was ‘ashamed and disgusted with himself’, but understood that this would have been little consolation for the victim and her family.
She said that her client’s offences had also had a huge impact on his wife and children who have been ‘subject to humiliation’ and had suffered a ‘severe punishment’ due to his actions which she described as ‘reckless in the extreme’.
It was also revealed that prior to the offences McMahon’s wife had donated him a kidney due to health issues that he was dealing with.
However, prior to sentencing the District Judge Marshall said that McMahon had ‘only been thinking about himself’ and his actions were ‘purely for sexual gratification’.
She also questioned why he was not facing sexual offence charges.
McMahon was sentenced to a two year probation order, 90 hours of community service and given a five year restraining order to make no deliberate contact or attempts at contact with the victim.
