TWO BROTHERS who were part of a “tidal wave” of sexual abuse of young children over a 33-year period in a tiny Co Fermanagh village have voluntarily admitted themselves to hospital, it was confirmed yesterday.
The two brothers had been found guilty of abuse but, under the terms of the North’s Mental Health Act, were allowed to return to their home in Donagh. They admitted themselves to hospital following a local outcry over the fact that they returned to the village where they carried out the abuse.
Last month a judge found that James (61) and Owen Roe McDermott (52), from Moorlough Road, Donagh, in Co Fermanagh, committed a number of sex acts against boys and girls over a lengthy period but were declared mentally unfit to stand trial.
Their brother, John Michael McDermott (60) of the same address was sentenced to nine years imprisonment on 35 charges of sexually abusing children — one of which included the rape of a boy.
A fourth brother, Peter Paul McDermott, who faced charges of indecently assaulting two boys, took his own life during his trial. In all, the four brothers faced 61 charges against six boys and girls from 1969 until 2002.
Judge David McFarland said the four brothers grew up in a family where there was “a highly deviant culture of sexually abusing children” and that they engaged in a “tidal wave” of abuse.
Such was the local anger that the brothers could continue to live in Donagh that the North’s Minister of Justice David Ford said it was almost “inevitable” there would be a change in the law.
It was confirmed yesterday by the Western Health Board in the North that the two brothers went to hospital on a voluntary basis.
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