Man who sexually assaulted teen girl (15) on Dublin bus claimed his victim was a ‘show-off’

Victor Baluta (38) looked the teenager “up and down”, followed her upstairs, sat close beside her and put his hand on her thigh, a court heard.

He thought she was alone but her mother was downstairs and confronted him when her daughter returned, upset.

Finding him guilty, Judge John Hughes said he did not believe Baluta's denial that he hadn’t touched the girl, and there were “plenty” of empty seats he could have sat in.

He adjourned the case at Dublin District Court for a victim impact statement before sentencing.

Baluta, of Faussagh Road, Cabra, had pleaded not guilty to sexually assaulting the girl on a bus in the north of the city on August 1 last year.

The girl said she got on the bus ahead of her mother and saw Baluta.

“He looked at me weirdly, like he wanted to do something,” she said. When she went upstairs, Baluta followed and sat directly beside her.

“I felt it was strange because there were a lot of seats around, he could have sat anywhere but he chose to sit beside me,” she said.

“I had a gut feeling something wasn’t right,” she said. “He was basically sitting right on top of me. I felt something on my right leg - it was his hand. He took his left hand and kind of placed it onto my upper thigh.”

Her legs were crossed and he touched her leg outside her trousers. She “panicked” and did not know what to do.

“He was spreading his legs, getting really close to me and I was getting really uncomfortable,” she said. “His whole body was shifting towards me.”

After around 10 minutes, she got up and went downstairs. Her mother asked her if someone had done something they shouldn’t. The girl’s “whole body was shaking” and she started crying.

She told the court it was “not uncommon for me to get stares” and previously, men had winked at her, cat-called her and put their arms around her waist.

The mother said she saw Baluta staring at her daughter’s breasts before he “almost immediately” went upstairs after her. When her daughter returned upset, she confronted Baluta who said “am I not allowed to touch my own leg?" before leaving the scene.

Garda Kevin Bambrick said the accused was traced from his Leap card which he had tapped.

In garda interview and in evidence, Baluta denied deliberately looking at the girl as she got on, or touching her. He did not see her mother.

He said he sat down beside the girl to avoid other people getting on and sitting next to him, and he had no intention of touching her.

Asked why he sat down beside the only juvenile on the bus, he told gardaí: “she doesn’t look it, I couldn’t have known she was 15.”

He said he had a bag on his lap and his hands were on the sides of his own legs.

With the movement of the bus he “may have touched” the girl accidentally and “If I touched her I apologise.”

When she got up, “I knew she was going to go down and tell her mum,” he told gardaí.

Asked how he knew this, he claimed in court he had the “gift” of an “extra sense” that he inherited from a dead aunt.

“I shouldn’t have sat down beside her,” he said. Asked if he found her attractive, he said no and told gardaí: “If she was attractive I could have touched her.”

Explaining this, he told the court he had been in pain in the garda station and his answers were out of character.

He also told gardaí: “Let’s be real here, why is she sitting upstairs on her own and her mother downstairs? If I had a child I would sit with them.”

He said “she was a show-off with her legs sitting like that” like she was “in a bar or a pub.”

Defence barrister Vanessa Frawley argued there was no evidence of a sexual assault.

“Perhaps he should not have sat down beside her and a free seat would have been better, but ‘would have been better’ is not enough to find someone criminally liable for sexual assault,” she said.

Judge Hughes said he did not accept Baluta's evidence which had been “bizarre, illogical and incredible.”

“This is not a case where people were packed like sardines on a Luas and touching up against each other,” the judge said.

The accused thought the girl was alone, followed her and sat next to her when there were “plenty of other seats.”

Baluta had no previous convictions.