Man jailed for indecent assault from 1970s

By David O’Sullivan

This report contains material some readers may find distressing.

A man who indecently assaulted his sister-in-law when she was aged between eight or nine says he has no memory of doing so.

The 75-year-old man, who cannot be named to protect the identity of his victim, appeared before Judge Martin Nolan in Dublin Circuit Criminal Court today/yesterday (THURSDAY) having pleaded guilty to one count of indecent assault on an unknown date between 1975 and 1976.

The accused man has been sentenced to ten months in prison.

An investigating garda told Laura Cunningham BL, prosecuting, that the man’s victim had made a complaint to gardaí in 2019.

She had said the man was her brother-in-law and that she went to visit him and her older sister in Dublin with her mother when the incident occurred. She would have been eight or nine years’ old at the time.

At one stage, the victim was left alone in the house with the man. She was asleep in a bedroom and opened her eyes to see him in the room completely naked.

The girl closed her eyes and pretended to be asleep – assuming he would go downstairs. The man then came over and climbed into the bed, still naked.

The child stayed in the bed for a few moments and kept pretending to be asleep, before deciding to get out. “Where are you going?”  the man asked her.

She told him she was going to the bathroom, but he used his arm to stop her getting out and said she didn’t need to.

The man then digitally penetrated the girl. The assault lasted a few minutes, but she said it “felt like forever” at the time.

The man kept his hand there until the front door opened and other people entered the building. He removed his hand and acted like nothing happened the following morning.

He was aged between 27 and 28 at the time.

The court was told that once the man was informed of the allegations against him, he sent a text message to his daughter saying: “I feel so bad for this,” “I can’t remember anything I did. I’m stressed here thinking about it,” and “All I can do is offer her compassion.”

In a victim impact statement handed in to the court and read by her daughter on her behalf, the woman said “I was blaming myself for allowing it to happen. I then realized I had done nothing wrong –  I was a child.”

“I hate the fact that for those few minutes he did what he did and he finds it so inconsequential that he does not remember what he did,” she said, and said she wishes she had the courage to tell someone when it happened.

The woman said she had turned to overeating and over drinking to cope with the assault, but that “I am now getting on with my life and I know I am now a stronger person.”

Olan Callanan BL, defending, said his client has no memory of the offence but accepts that he committed the indecent assault.

He said his client felt “shock, remorse and shame” after the allegations were put to him and that “these have been the worst years of his life.”

Mr Callanan said his client was drinking alcohol excessively at the time but has no longer drinks and has been assessed at being at very low risk of re-offending.

The man has three prior convictions for rioting and assault.

In sentencing, Judge Nolan said it was “terrible behaviour” and that it was “a serious matter to abuse somebody in this way when you are in a position of authority and trust.”

He said the mitigating factors were the man’s guilty plea, his expression of remorse, his work history and the fact he has no relevant record of convictions.

Judge Nolan sentenced the man to ten months’ imprisonment, out of a potential maximum sentence of two years.