CITY PAEDOPHILE SENTENCED FOR 18 MONTHS

Date Published: 08-Mar-2013

A 35 year old city man has been sentenced to eighteen months in prison for sexually assaulting two of his neighbour's children over a three-year period.The man, described by a psychologist as a "regressive paedophile", cannot be named in order to protect the identity of the victims who were his next-door neighbours' children.

The father of four had initially denied three charges of sexually assaulting one of the girls at two different locations on various dates between 1st of June, 2007 and 31st December, 2008.

He had also denied the sexual assault of the second girl, who is not related to the first victim, on October 3, 2009 at a third city location.

Moments before his trial was due to begin before a jury at Galway Circuit Criminal Court on May 22 last year the man pleaded guilty to two of the charges, in respect of each girl, and admitted the facts in the remaining two.Reports handed into court stated he still posed a risk to children and was classed as a "regressed paedophile".

Defence barrister, John O'Donnell said the man had lost his job as a result of the offences and he had written a letter to the judge stating he would not reoffend and wanted to get on with his life.

Justice Groarke sentenced the man to eighteen months in prison for the first offence and to nine months in prison for the second offence, both sentences to run concurrently.

Even though the plea was extremely late, the judge said he was suspending the final six months of the sentence for two years.

The accused is already registered as a sex offender.

Leave to appeal the sentence was refused.