An American man who groped inside and outside a young man’s shorts in the sauna at the Shelbourne Hotel in Dublin has avoided jail.

Bryan McNeill, aged 55, of K Street, Boston, Massachusetts, USA, was handed a six-month suspended sentence and ordered to pay €10,000 to the 19-year-old college student.

The businessman had been allowed to return to the United States in March, days after the incident in the luxury hotel.

He pleaded guilty to a sexual assault charge when he came from the US for his hearing in Dublin District Court on Monday, and his case was adjourned until today for sentencing.

In a mitigation plea, defence counsel Oisín Clarke, instructed by solicitor Brian Keenan, had urged the court to leave McNeill without a criminal conviction based on extenuating circumstances: the early plea, remorse, being a sole carer for his mother, a compensation offer to include paying for therapy for the complainant, his lack of prior convictions and previous good character.

However, Judge Murphy refused, stressing the gravity, culpability, invasiveness and sexualised nature of the touching, and the high level of gross misjudgement and recklessness given the marked age gap between McNeill and the complainant.

Judge Murphy heard McNeill “misread the situation” until the shocked victim stood up and told him to stop.

McNeill did not address the court. His husband provided a letter confirming the accused’s health had declined due to stress, and he had suffered from vertigo since the incident.

Judge Murphy recorded a conviction and suspended the sentence, on the condition that the defendant does not reoffend within the next year and pays the compensation within six months.

The teenager did not attend the sentencing, but his mother was present to hear the outcome and the judge’s praise for his honest and measured statement. Judge Murphy also emphasised that the young man was extremely blameless.

In evidence, Detective Garda Cathal Ryan said the injured party was staying at the five-star hotel in March with a family member and used the gym, and afterwards went to the sauna.

He later reported to gardaí that an older man sexually assaulted him in the sauna.

In his statement, he outlined to the detective that McNeill was rubbing his shoulder and upper torso with his right hand, and “slid” his hands under his shorts to grope his buttocks from within his shorts and then with his left hand grabbed his penis outside the shorts.

McNeill gave gardaí an account claiming it was a consensual interaction, but the complainant stated it was not consensual.

Detective Garda Ryan said McNeill, who had been granted €30,000 bail, had no prior convictions in Ireland or any other jurisdiction.

Judge Murphy ranked the offence as mid-range, if not higher, for the jurisdiction of the District Court.

‘I did not initiate what happened’

On Monday, the student had told the judge: “I was just enjoying the luxury of being in the hotel and having a general conversation; I did not initiate what happened.”

He revealed that he was in shock afterwards, and it took weeks to process what happened. He could not talk about it when his parents asked how he was.

He said that his family thought he was happier before and is more irritable now. He also stated that he was not ready to face what happened, but wanted it to disappear.

“I do wonder why this was done to me. I am friendly and social, but definitely more worried than I used to be,” the young man had said.

He became withdrawn and believed the assault was partly a reason for failing a college exam during the summer.

The defence said McNeill came from humble beginnings, was the first in his family to achieve a third-level education and “dragged himself up by his bootstraps” from a young age, eventually becoming a real estate agent.

Counsel submitted that a conviction could have “catastrophic consequences” for McNeill in the United States in terms of his livelihood and other features of his life.

A renowned landscape architect has died in a plane crash alongside three others in Brazil.

Kongjian Yu was killed when the small aircraft crashed on Tuesday evening while attempting to land at a large farm around 62 miles from the town of Aquidauana in the country’s Mato Grosso do Sul state.

There was no immediate information on what caused the crash.

Yu, a distinguished Chinese landscape architect and urban planner, gained global relevance after the Chinese government adopted his concept of “sponge cities,” which utilise nature-based solutions to absorb and retain water, rather than relying on concrete infrastructure to channel it away.

His concept aimed to mitigate the impact of climate change, arguing that by creating large spaces to hold water in city centres, such as parks and ponds, extreme rainfall can be absorbed, helping prevent floods.

The concept has since been adopted in hundreds of places in China as well as urban areas from the US to Russia.

Yu founded the College of Architecture and Landscape at Peking University, one of China’s most prestigious universities.

Geraldo Alckmin, Brazil’s vice president, confirmed Yu was killed alongside pilot Marcelo Pereira de Barros and filmmakers Luiz Fernando Feres da Cunha Ferraz and Rubens Crispim Jr.

Mr Alckmin posted on X: “Professor Yu became renowned for creating the concept of sponge cities, with notable contributions to sustainable urbanism, the preservation of biodiversity, and the protection of the planet.

“His legacy will continue to inspire all those dedicated to the ecological cause.”

Read more from Sky News:
Two dead after shooting at ICE facility by ‘possible sniper’
Super typhoon Ragasa hits China and Hong Kong

Emergency crews were alerted to the crash at about 8.10pm local time. A search and rescue operation lasted approximately nine hours.

Yu and the filmmakers were part of a team producing a documentary about the Pantanal wetlands, the world’s largest tropical wetlands.

The Pantanal, fed by tributaries of the Paraguay River and mostly located in Brazil, is a biodiversity hotspot and a popular destination for tourists to see jaguars, macaws, caimans, capybaras and migratory birds in the wild.

In an interview with The Associated Press in 2022, Yu criticized much of Asia’s modern infrastructure for being built on ideas imported from Europe, which he said were ill-fitted to the monsoon climate that prevails over much of the continent.

Now that nominations are closed, the official Presidential Election campaign begins with three candidates on the ballot paper.

Our political reporter Sandra Hurley gives a quick runthrough on those three candidates – Catherine Connolly, Jim Gavin and Heather Humphreys.

Watch our video to see more.