A 29-year-old man who sexually abused his nieces when he was a teenager has been given a nine-year suspended sentence at the Central Criminal Court. The man left the country in 1992 when the abuse became known. Three years later he returned to Cork and the youngest victim ordered him to walk to a phone box and stand outside while she rang the Garda, Garda Michael O'Connell said.
Mr Justice Flood said he had carefully considered his sentence. He warned the man he would serve every day of the nine years if he re-offended. His task in sentencing was not to look at a man of 29 but on a person who had committed the offences when he was aged 14 to 15. It was clear from the evidence that the man had lived in torment as a consequence of the serious acts committed on two children.
The judge said the question was whether he should add to this torment as the day the defendant crossed a prison door he would become even more of a marked man.
Quoting from a Supreme Court judgment he said courts were not an instrument of vengeance. The man would now have to prove he was worth regaining acceptance in society. In taking this unusual course, he was not suggesting the offences were minor. They had caused "continued grief and tragedy to two very lovely and charming young women", he added.
The man pleaded guilty to having unlawful carnal knowledge of the youngest victim, and to five other charges of sexually abusing her and her sister in the mid-1980s when he was babysitting. He had no other convictions and had had skilled work for a number of years.