Man faces serious sexual assault charge

A Filipino man was remanded into custody today accused of sexually assaulting one girl and arranging for another teenager to be subjected to a “serious sexual assault.”

Appearing handcuffed in the dock of Limavady Magistrates Court, sitting in Coleraine, 36-year-old Garry Luna confirmed his identity and that he understood the charges against him.

While he was able to understand that portion of the proceedings, the substantive hearing was interpreted for him.

Luna, with an address at Clarence Street in Ballymena, faces a total of five charges, alleged to have been committed against two teenage girls, between “an unknown date in March” and 24 May this year.

The 36-year-old faces charges of sexual communication, common assault, inciting a child aged 13-16 to engage in sexual activity, sexual assault and further that he “facilitated or arranged for something to be done” which would involve sexual activity with a child.

Objecting to Luna being granted bail, Det. Const. Sinclair outlined how the charges “stemmed from a report from the complainant that she had been seriously sexually assaulted on 24 May.”

The officer told the court it was Monday past when the alleged victim provided an account that “she had been with a friend when they met the defendant and he took both girls” to his home on Clarence Street.

“The complainant stated that both girls had been communicating with him by Facebook messenger for a number of weeks prior to this,” said the detective.

According to the police case, Luna “took them into the living room of the property” where he tried to kiss her and was “nipping her on the leg.”

“Grabbing her by the arm,” Luna is alleged to have led the girl upstairs and into a bedroom where there was another man “sitting on the bed.”

The teenager has reported to police that man subjected her to a “serious sexual assault,” the court heard.

When the alleged victim got out of the room and went downstairs, she “heard her friend shouting from one of the bedrooms” and after she helped her open the door, both girls left the property.

DC Sinclair said while specialised officers had completed an Achieving Best Evidence interview with one complainant, “the other is to be completed.”

She told the court that one man “is in custody at present” and further that having examined Luna’s mobile phone, “there is evidence that he has been engaging in sexual communication with both girls over a substantial period of time.”

“This contact was sexual,” claimed the officer.

Turning to objections to bail, DC Sinclair told the court given the recent disorder and ongoing tensions in Ballymena, if Luna was freed there could be further public disorder and highlighted that if released, “we cannot guarantee his safety.”

She added that given Luna’s nationality, “there is a risk of flight.”

While Luna’s defence counsel began to mount an application for bail, he conceded he had no proposed address for the defendant to reside at so “it would be subject to police approving an address.”

District Judge Peter King told him however “I am not going to consider bail without an address.”

“These charges are of such severity and gravity that if I were to remand him to an address approved by police, I will potentially be devolving a bail decision to police when the court is best placed to make that decision,” the judge ruled.

He told the barrister that even if he did have a proposed bail address, the application to have Luna freed “would have been an uphill application to make.”

Remanding Luna into custody, Judge King adjourned the case to 17 July.