Prison for Donegal man who sexually assaulted two sisters

A Donegal man who sexually assaulted two sisters has been jailed for 14 months.

The man, who is aged in his 50s and related to the victims, pleaded guilty at Letterkenny Circuit Court.

He cannot be named to protect the identity of the victims.

One of the man's victims listened to the sentence by video link while her sister was in court.

The accused pleaded guilty that on a date between February 1992 and September 2000, at a named location in County Donegal, that he sexually assaulted a female by touching her genitals when she was sitting on his knee.

He also pleaded guilty to a charge that, on a date between April 1997 and March 1998, at a named location in County Donegal, that he sexually assaulted a female by touching her buttocks under her pyjama bottoms while she was sitting on his knee.

Detective Garda Michelle Kelly told Ms Fiona Crawford BL, state prosecutor, that one of the complainants was playing a Nintendo game in the home of a relative.

She was sitting on the suspect's knee when he put his hands down her trousers. The victim told gardai that the defendant started touching her vagina “for a few minutes” with his fingers.

In another incident, the suspect unzipped the girl's trousers and started to touch her vagina with his mouth.

Around the time of her First Communion, the same type of incident occurred where the accused man unzipped the victim's trousers and started touching her vagina with his mouth. The victim reported that he also used his hands “and started using his fingers”.

Ms Crawford told the court that the victim did not tell anyone at the time.

“A lot of the time, I never said anything as I didn't really understand it,” she told gardai.

The other complainant told how the accused man put his hands around her waist and started to hug her. The victim said the man put is head on her shoulder and placed his hands under her bottoms and onto her bum.

“I don't recall him saying anything and his movements were slow,” she told gardai.

Victim impact statements were read to the court by Detective Garda Kelly.

One of the victims recalled how she suppressed the memories and when she began dating it all seemed “like a weird dream that made me feel uncomfortable”.

She told how she became a very timid child and felt that it led to her being bullied in secondary school.

“Not only being bullied, but held back in many ways,” she said, adding that she was “scared to get a job, shy and backward and scared to deal with the public.

She ended up giving up on a college course as she never felt good enough or that she belonged.

“I have come out of the other side,” she said. “I am a survivor, not a victim.”

The second victim said she was very naive as a child, but was aware what was done to her was “not okay”.

“I locked it away and did not discuss or think about it,” she said, adding that when she found out about what happened to her sister she “felt guilty for not speaking up sooner”.

She said that “once fond memories are now tainted”.

She said that the man's admission of guilt is “small compensation” and was thankful for the “amazing support” from her family.

The accused man was put into the witness box by his own barrister, Mr Colm Smyth SC, acting with Mr Ciaran Elders BL, instructed by solicitor Tom McSharry.

The man read a letter to each of the victims in which he apologised.

“I am deeply sorry and I know what I did was unacceptable,” he wrote to one of the victims. “You didn't deserve what I did and I take full responsibility. I understand the gravity of what I did. It was wrong of me to use the trust that way.”

To the other, he said he understood that his actions had “left a scar.”

“I misused the trust and that was totally wrong of me to do so,” he said. “I am truly sorry and so ashamed.”

He said he had “no right to ask,” but expressed the hope that the women could forgive him.

As a token of remorse, the man brought to court the sum of €7,000 to be paid to each victim.

Mr Smyth told Judge John Aylmer that his client has been placed as a low risk of reoffending.

“He has full insight into the harm that he has caused,” Mr Smyth said. “In many ways, he was a man who did not perhaps have the social life one would expect from a young man.”

He said his client had an otherwise exemplary record and the man's employer was present in court.

Judge Aylmer considered the sentence having adjourned his decision after first hearing the facts in the case last week.

He said he considered count one, which involved the touching and kissing of the genital area, was the more serious charge than count four, a count of touching, which he said was "slightly less serious."

Judge Aylmer referred to the gross breach of trust and the facts that the offences took place over a long period of time.

He said that before mitigation, he placed count one in the mid range of such offences and said it merited a sentence of two and a half years.

Judge Aylmer added that count four was somewhat less intrusive in nature but was however still a serious offence and he placed it in the lower range of such offences meriting a sentence of 18 months in prison before mitigation.

He said the accused had entered a guilty plea, albeit a late one, that he had no previous convictions and that he had not come to the attention of Gardai since the lengthy period of time since these offences.

The Judge said the man is genuinely remorseful and he appears to be a man who led a very isolated and lonely life where he devoted himself in young adulthood and middle age to looking after his mother and that he did so very well.

He noted that there was an excellent reference from his employer of more than 30 years and that he also had a token of remorse of €7,000 in court for each of his victims.

"Apart from these offences he has led a blameless and productive life," said Judge Aylmer.

After these mitigating factors, he said he was reducing the sentences to one of two years on count one and 14 months on count four.

However, having heard what was said in the Probation Report and the need for other matters to be dealt with by the defendant, Judge Aylmer reduced the penalty for count one to 14 months in prison and count four to one of ten months in prison.

Both sentences are to run concurrently which means he will serve 14 months behind bars.

He was also ordered to keep the peace and be of good behaviour and go under the care of the Probation Services for 12 months and to keep all appointments with them.

He will also undergo the Sex Offenders Treatment Programme and must abide by the requirements of the Sex Offenders Register.