Man says he felt abused all over again by accused’s statement

An victim of child sex abuse has said that he felt he was being abused all over again when his abuser told gardaí that he could not remember sexually assaulting him as a boy.

The man, who is now in his 40s, spoke of how his life had been affected by the abuse perpetrated by Patrick Bassett (80) when he was just 12-years-old.

Bassett, with an address at The Farmhouse, Sarsfield Court, Glanmire, Co Cork, pleaded guilty at Cork Circuit Criminal Court to 17 counts of indecently assaulting the boy between 1977 and 1980.

His victim told the court that he was abused by Bassett after getting a summer job working with him in his antiques business in Glanmire in the 1970s.

“After the first time Bassett abused me I will never forget running to get home, but when I got there I just had my dinner as usual and went out to my friends,” he told the court.

The man told how he struggled to tell his parents but “I could not find a way to say what happened to me.

“When I was growing up my father and mother worked hard and there was little time for much else, and I felt my shame would become their shame so I kept it to myself.

“I lived with this all my teenage and adult life. I have never had peace of mind in my head. Bassett and his abuse is always in the shadows.

“It has damaged me in ways that are too late to put right. I have always accepted second best in life. I do not expect anything good in my life. I have made work my life, it’s my escape.

“Paddy Bassett took my trust in people, and I have lived all my adult life running from this,” the man said,

The man also said that the abuse has affected his ability to form any close relationships.

“I feel that I’m dead inside for so long now it’s part of me. I have never been able to emotionally attach myself to another adult in a complete and trusting and loving way.

“I know this is not how to live your life but it was my way of coping. Now I’m at a stage where I have cut myself off from so many people that being on my own will be my future.”

Garda investigation

The case was investigated by Sgt Annmarie Guiney, who revealed that when she interviewed Bassett he told her he could not remember the boy and replied "no comment" to her questions.

Today, the victim told of the impact that that revelation had on him after a lifetime of struggling to cope with the abuse.

He said that he didn’t care what sentence Bassett got from the court for abusing him, as what he wanted was acknowledgement, but that it seemed that Bassett was denying him even that.

“All I wanted was for him to acknowledge that I existed, that I was a boy who worked for him, but to be told that he has no recollection of me is abusing me all over again.

“It gives him power over me still and in the end, he wins out again,” said the man.

The man also paid tribute to Sgt Guiney for her support and dedication in investigating the matter fully.

Sgt Guiney told Judge Sean Ó Donnabháin that Bassett has previous convictions for abusing two other boys, for which he was sentenced to four years in jail in May 2014.

However, that sentence is currently under appeal and the judge adjourned sentence on the latest case until after that appeal is heard by the Court of Criminal Appeal in October.