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A cross dresser convicted of masturbating in front of passengers on the Bus Eireann Galway to Derry coach says he’s the victim of a witch hunt.
Kevin Ryan, who witnesses claim digitally penetrated himself during the incident, told The Star that he didn’t act in a lewd way, insisting: “I’m a cross dresser, but I’m not a pervert.”
Witnesses told Tuam District Court how stunned passengers observed Ryan masturbating and penetrating his bum during the incident in January 2016.
However, the Mayo father of three insisted he didn’t act inappropriately on the bus.
Ryan, who has no previous convictions, said he has been traumatised over the case and said he is likely to appeal the conviction.
“The truth is I do cross dress and I have no issue with that, I am open about it,” Ryan told The Star.
“On the day in question I was wearing a tight, feminine dark blouse, a black pair of leggings and a pair of small heels.
“I didn’t have any make up on and was not done up in a garish manner, so it was certainly not over the top and I was not trying to attract attention in any way.”
Ryan says he was intending to get off the bus at in Charlestown, but the bus stopped in Tuam after a passenger three rows up from him spoke to the driver.
“The driver didn’t engage in any conversation with me but the next thing I knew there were four gardai getting on the bus and taking me off it,” he said.
“I was told that the passenger had seen me masturbating, but given that he was sitting three rows up from me on such a dark night there is no way he could have seen anything.
“I told the gardai I was a cross dresser and it was likely that was why this passenger was making a complaint, as you do often get comments when you get on a bus dressed as I was. “
On Tuesday District Court Judge James Faughnan heard how Ryan was wearing a blouse, black leggings and high heels when he was said to have been touching himself in full view of other passengers.
One of the traumatised witnesses told the court that he will never travel on public transport again.
Two passengers on the bus gave evidence that the defendant was masturbating and one said that he penetrated himself while “moaning and groaning” at the same time.
The driver told the court that he found Ryan sitting on the bus naked from the waist down.
However, the Mayo man told The Star: “I found this evidence the most ludicrous of all, as who sits on a public bus with their clothes off?”
Garda Nigel Bourke told the court that he received complaints from passengers about the defendant and that one of them had told him that Ryan had been “inserting his finger up his anus”.
Ryan denied performing any sex acts on but did confirm that he was a cross dresser.
Convicting Ryan Judge Faughnan said: “Whatever you do in your private home is a matter for yourself, but on a public bus, you have to behave in a certain way.”
The case was adjourned until the 11th of April to allow for the preparation of a probation report.
Ryan told The Star that he will launch an appeal as he feels “like I’ve been the victim of a witch-hunt.”