A 73-YEAR-OLD councillor has resigned after losing his appeal against a conviction for sexually assaulting a teenage girl.
Brian Duffin was found guilty in June of the sex assault on a 17 year-old girl in 2016 and received a four-month jail sentence in August, but was freed on bail to launch an appeal.
On Wednesday a judge at Coleraine County Appeal Court upheld his conviction. A sentencing hearing has been adjourned until the new year.
Duffin resigned from the SDLP in February after the case emerged, but had continued on Antrim and Newtownabbey Borough Council as an independent councillor.
He had resisted calls to resign following his original conviction. There was also confusion over whether he faced automatic disqualification because of his jail sentence.
But in a statement yesterday, a council spokeswoman said Duffin "has tendered his resignation from council".
The SDLP will decide who takes his vacated seat, because he was initially elected as one of the party's representatives.
The court heard the teenage victim was in her nightdress when the sexual assault happened as Duffin sat beside her on a sofa on June 16 2016.
During her often tearful cross-examination, the teenager said she had tried to block out the attack as it was "something I don't want to remember".
A defence barrister suggested to her that in fact Duffin had tried to comfort her when she became upset talking about her ill grandfather.
But she told the lawyer: "I don't see sticking his tongue down my throat, grabbing my breast and moving his hand up my leg, I don't see that as comforting, I see that as sexual assault."
Duffin, a father-of-11 and grandfather to 19, from Cargin Road in Toomebridge, rejected the claims against him.
Asked however what motivation the teenager would have to make up such a story, Duffin could provide no explanation.
Giving her verdict on Wednesday, Judge Melody McReynolds said she took account of the "exemplary way in which the appellant has led his life to date", but described the victim's evidence as "truthful, accurate and reliable".
The judge said there "may be some benefit from some refinement" of the Sexual Offences Prevention Order the councillor is already subject to.
She reminded the court he will remain in the police sex offenders' register until 2023.
