Man described as ‘dirty old man’ by judge loses appeal

A 70-year-old bachelor described as a “dirty old man” several times by his trial judge has lost an appeal against sentences for sexually assaulting two young girls.

Peter Clarke (70) of O'Neill St, Carrickmacross, Co Monaghan pleaded guilty to two counts of sexual assault committed against two young girls in May and September 2011 in Co Monaghan.

He was given two concurrent five-year prison sentences by Judge John O'Hagan at Monaghan Circuit Criminal Court on January 11th, 2013.

Moving an application to review Clarke’s sentence in the Court of Appeal, his barrister Paul Greene said the sentencing judge failed to have any proper regard to Clarke’s guilty plea and referred to him inappropriately as a “dirty old man” several times.

The judge had said Clarke’s plea of guilty saved the two young girls from going through the experience of “telling the people of Monaghan about this dirty old man who couldn’t keep his hands off children”.

Counsel further submitted that the judge’s incorrect treatment of what Clarke had said in garda interviews, that he had taken pleasure in his actions and felt proud or boastful, was to misunderstand his medical conditions.

Mr Greene said his client had taken steps to medicate himself, known as “chemical castration”, to suppress the impulses that caused him to behave in the way that he did.

In response to a query from Mr Justice Alan Mahon that medical reports did not suggest Clarke was out of control, Mr Greene said any woman was susceptible to his unwanted attention including prison officers taking him to court in a prison van; "It was that bad" Mr Greene said.

Refusing Clarke’s appeal, Ms Justice Mary Irvine said it was “unfortunate” that the sentencing judge had referred to him as a “dirty old man” several times.

She said the first sexual offence was committed against a 15-year-old girl on Main Street, Carrickmacross on May 12th, 2011.

Ms Justice Irvine said Clarke had told gardaí­ that he let her go because there were a lot of people around.

The court heard Clarke knew she was afraid, he “did it for the buzz” and he wanted to offer this victim a couple of hundred euro in compensation.

The second offence occurred outside a local church, Ms Justice Irvine said. When asked by gardaí­ if he would have liked to take things further he replied in the negative saying there were lots of people around.

Clarke was 68 at the time of the offence, a single man living with his sister who had never been married or in a long term relationship, the judge said. At the time of the second offence, he had been taking a drug to reduce his sexual impulses.

Ms Justice Irvine said the sentencing judge had come to the view that Clarke had no major mental illness and his mental condition was not such that he could not control himself. Various medical reports found that he had a borderline IQ, suffered atrophy of the brain and had a frontal lobe deficit.

Clarke knew his victims were frightened young girls and he would have gone further if nobody else was around. He had not shown any genuine remorse and he was at this stage a repeat offender, Ms Justice Irvine said.

The Court of Appeal was of the view that the trial judge properly considered the circumstances and took into account all of the mitigating factors.

Ms Justice Irvine said Judge O’Hagan had done more than pay lip service to the plea of guilty, he took the age of the offender into account and acknowledged Clarke had been assaulted while in prison and noted he will continue to be a risk in prison.

Ms Justice Irvine, who sat with Mr Justice Mahon and Mr Justice Garrett Sheehan, said the court was not satisfied that the sentences imposed on Clarke were severe enough to warrant setting them aside.

He was returned to prison where he will serve out the remainder of his sentence. On his release he is directed to fully engage with the probation service for seven years.