Former footballer Paddy McCourt has been found guilty of sexual assault.
The BBC reports that McCourt of Wheatfield Court in Muff, was accused of inappropriately touching a woman in a city centre bar in Derry in January 2022.
The 39-year-old, who also played for Celtic, Derry City, Barnsley, Brighton & Hove Albion and Finn Harps in his career, had denied the charge against him.
McCourt will be sentenced on 7 July.
On Wednesday District Judge Ted Magill ruled that while there were “discrepancies” in some of the witness accounts this happens.
After a two-day hearing during which the victim and McCourt both gave evidence, the judge dismissed the defence’s claims that the police investigation had been flawed because they did not arrest and take DNA samples from another man in the bar that night.
Judge Magill said that the actions of the other man in the case “were not consistent” with him having committed the offence.
He added that “it follows it can’t be anyone other than the defendant” who carried out the assault.
The former footballer was released on bail.
