A MAN who carried out indecent assaults on a young relation of his over 40 years ago has been sentenced to one-and-a-half years imprisonment at Letterkenny Circuit Court.
The accused had pleaded guilty to two counts of indecent assault on dates between September 1, 1982, and December 31, 1982.
The court heard of the severe impact the incidents had had on the victim in the years since.
The accused, who cannot be named to protect the identity of his victim, was 16 at the time of the incident. The injured party was 12 when the offences occurred.
The victim first made a complaint to Gardaí in June 2016. The abuse had taken place in a shed on a farm and continued to affect him through much of his life.
He had feelings of anger and shame and in his 20s and 30s and also had feelings of disgust. He had found it difficult to allow anyone to get close to him in any romantic way.
When he reached his 40s, he started having flashbacks and began to obsess about his appearances. Before having a mental breakdown he had endured suicidal feelings.
He had spoken to a friend who had told him that his children needed him and he then agreed to go to counselling.
The victim could not bring himself to appear in court and had also declined the offer to appear by videolink.
During interviews with Gardaí, the accused said he thought it was just young boys growing up and experimenting.
“I didn’t think we were doing anything wrong,” he said.
Defence counsel, Declan McHugh, B.L., told the court that his client was ashamed and remorseful and wanted to apologise to his victim.
He was sorry if he had put pressure on his victim’s life.
“I’m ashamed of myself now,” he said.
Describing his client as “not a man of many words”, Mr McHugh said he had completely withdrawn socially since the allegations had first been made.
The defence barrister said the accused had 41 years of an “unblemished record” since the offences had occurred.
Imposing sentence, Judge John Alymer said the complainant had met with the accused on four or five occasions when he had been indecently assaulted in a “most serious way”.
There had been a significant age gap between the accused and his victim and the assaults had had a severe impact in the forty-two years since their occurrence.
Judge Aylmer placed the offences in the mid range of such offending which merited a sentence of five years in prison as a starting point.
“The accused was 16 at the time and was somewhat immature.” The environment in which he had been brought up had a “rather perverse attitude” to sexual matters, the Judge noted.
Taking these factors into account, he reduced the sentence to one of three and a half years.
Referring to the mitigating circumstances, he said the accused had led an otherwise “blameless life” in the forty-two years since the incidents and was well regarded in his community.
The Probation Report had indicated that he was at a low risk of re-offending and the court accepted that he had been completely cooperative and had made full admissions while entering an early plea of guilty. He had come to court with excellent references.
The accused had also demonstrated a “great deal of remorse”, added the Judge.
He reduced the sentence to one of two and a half years but added that the matter was too grave to suspend the sentence in its entirety and there had to be a custodial sentence involved due to the “appalling impact” the offences had on the complainant in the past 42 years.
Judge Alymer said he would suspend the final 12 months of the sentence on condition that the accused enter a bond to keep the peace and be of good behaviour. He was also to go under the supervision of the Probation Services following his release from prison.
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