Vagrant indecently assaulted boy

Press, 18 April 1980, Page 5

Vagrant indecently assaulted boy

After being indecently assaulted by an unshaven man dressed in an overcoat and old gumboots, a boy locked himself inside his home until his family returned home, Mr Justice Roper and a jury were .told in the High Court yesterday. After deliberating for an hour and a half the jury found George Patrick Shannon, aged 42, an unemployed vagrant, guilty on a charge of indecently assaulting a boy, aged 13, on November 22, 1979. Shannon was remanded in custody to April 22 for sentence. After the verdict was returned his Honour told the jury that Shannon had an appalling list of convictions for a wide variety of offences and that he was something of a problem. Mr G. K. Panckhurst appeared for the Crown and Mr N. C. Chapman for Shannon. Evidence was given that the boy was home alone on a Thursday evening weeding the-driveway when he was approached by Shannon who

offered to assist him. The boy declined the help and Shannon, who smelt as though he had been drinking, threw some weeds at the boy and then indecently assaulted him. The boy went into the house and locked all the doors and waited for his mother to return. Constable R. J. Moore, a police dog handler, said that early on the evening of November 22 he was driving past the Wigram Air Base when he saw Shannon sitting on a fence. A little later he was called on the radio to go to the scene of an indecent assault on a boy and the description of the offender fitted that of Shannon. A search was made with the dog and Shannon was found asleep in the long grass of a vacant industrial section near the Sockbum overhead bridge. There was a bottle of sherry beside him. Shannon said in evidence that on November 22 he had been drinking all day. He just approached the boy and said that it was a hard job weeding and offered to .help

him. He might have grabbed the boy when he overbalanced when standing up after pulling out a weed but he did not indecently assault him.