A sex offender who was extradited to Ireland from France after he sexually assaulted and exposed himself to a number of young women on Darts and near train stations has been jailed for three and half years.
Tony Guilloteau (32) was living in Ireland studying English in 2020 when he engaged in a campaign of targeting young women, exposing himself to them on the Dart and sexually assaulting others on the street, Dublin Circuit Criminal Court heard.
In the case of his youngest victim, who was aged 17 at the time, Guilloteau sat across from her on the train, exposed and masturbated himself before approaching her and ejaculating on the aisle.
She was “frozen” during the incident, which took place at around 3pm in the afternoon, Garda Martin Byrne told Tessa White BL, prosecuting, at an earlier sentence hearing.
Guilloteau, formerly of Sutton Park, Sutton, Co Dublin, pleaded guilty to four counts of sexual assault and two counts of engaging in offensive behaviour of a sexual nature on dates between February 13th and March 11th, 2020. He left Ireland for France just before the Covid pandemic lockdown and went on to commit similar offences in France, the court heard.
He has three previous convictions arising from those offences and served an 18-month sentence in the community in France wearing an ankle tag, the court heard.
He was questioned in relation to the Irish charges in La Rochelle in France in 2021 and extradited to Ireland last February. He has been in custody since his extradition.
Imposing sentence on Wednesday, Judge Orla Crowe said it is an aggravating feature of the case that there are five victims who were “young women out and about in Dublin city, minding their own business when they were subjected to this behaviour”.
She said these incidents must have been “distressing and terrifying” for the victims. The judge noted there was a range of offending by Guilloteau over the five-week period, some of which were “less serious in nature”, but all were very serious in terms of impact on the victims.
The judge said the young women “had the right to move about on their own in the day or night” without being subjected to Guilloteau's “egregious” behaviour.
Judge Crowe said the court had taken into account the guilty plea, expressions of remorse, the mitigation and Guilloteau's personal circumstances.
She backdated the three-and-a-half-year sentence to January 30th, last when Guilloteau went into custody.
In a letter of apology handed into court, he said he was “so sad, so ashamed” and so disappointed in himself. “Things were complicated for me on a psychological level,” he said, adding that he has been seeing a psychologist for four years now.
James Dwyer SC, defending, said Guilloteau had a difficult childhood and was brought up by his grandmother after his mother left when he was eight years old. He has worked in digital marketing and quality control jobs, the court heard.
