A man has been jailed for 20 years for sexually abusing five of his children, who would be locked in a room for days at a time without food.
Noel Farrell (70) pleaded guilty at the Central Criminal Court to a number of sample counts of sexual abuse against his four daughters and one son at various addresses in Co Sligo over two decades.
Sentencing him on Friday, Judge Tony Hunt said this was a case he suspected would stand out in his memory “for all the wrong reasons”, including the extreme cruelty and gravity of the offending.
“It is truly shocking,” he said. “One runs out of words in trying to describe the depths plumbed in this particular case. I say this as a way of trying to illustrate how extreme and awful the nature of the facts in this case are.”
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The judge said the complainants were dealt a terrible hand in life and were exposed to a “grotesque breach of parental trust”. He said they had shown an extraordinary degree of fortitude and courage in how they faced up to their lives.
Noting the lack of mitigating factors in the case, save for the guilty plea, the judge set a headline sentence of 30 years, which he reduced to 20 years.
He said there was no need to impose a post-release supervision order, because if Farrell “does emerge from a custodial sentence”, he will be extremely old.
Farrell, of Rathedmond Estate, Sligo, made no visible reaction as the sentence was imposed, while the complainants embraced each other.
The court heard four of the five children wished to waive their right to anonymity so Farrell could be identified in reporting and that the fifth did not wish to be named herself but wished for Farrell to be named.
In victim impact statements, the five siblings spoke of the effects of the abuse on their mental health, relationships and lives.
Some of the victims also spoke about developing addiction issues and the impact of being placed into care.
Farrell initially faced 109 counts, but pleaded guilty to three counts of rape against three of his daughters, and 19 counts of indecent assault and sexual assault relating to all five complainants.
Evidence was heard that the abuse included rape, sexual assault, inappropriate touching and digital penetration.
The five victims were aged between two and 17 years during the periods when Farrell abused them.
Giving evidence last December, Garda Sgt Diarmuid Fearon outlined that Farrell and his late wife had serious issues with alcohol.
The court heard evidence of neglect, including some of the children often going hungry, being locked in a room for days and being forced to drink urine to survive.
After the marriage broke down, Farrell went to England. Some of the children were taken into care in 1981.
The court was told the health board had concerns about sexual misconduct and this was reported in some form in 1989.
The judge said it was clear from the victim impact statements that the abuse caused profound and enduring harm to the five complainants.
“I want to say how impressive you are and how impressive you have been in facing what you faced and how you faced it,” he told them. “You can hold your head up high.”
The first complainant, Amanda, told gardaí her father sexually abused her for the first time when she was about seven . He also abused her on other occasions.
She was later taken into care and then went to live with her grandmother, after which the abuse ended.
She confronted her father in the pub when she was 18, asking why he did it and he replied: “I don’t know.”
In her statement, Amanda said she believes what happened to her as a child had a huge impact on the course of her life as she developed alcoholism. She said she would encourage others to come forward, adding that her life is different now.
Farrell also admitted abusing another daughter, Helen, when she was aged between four and 6½ years. She told gardaí the children could be locked in a bedroom for a day or two when Farrell and her mother left the house. There was a bucket left in the room for them to use as a toilet. She suffered abuse such as inappropriate touching and oral rape.
She was taken into care when she was four or five and the abuse continued whenever Farrell would take her for visits.
In her victim impact statement, Helen said the abuse had a “devastating and lasting impact”, taking away her sense of safety and innocence.
Jessica Farrell told gardaí she was first abused by Farrell when she was aged about 3½ in an aunt’s house. In one incident, he brought her to his room, sexually abused her and said he would give her money to buy sweets if she did not cry. She was taken into care when she was four.
Reading her victim impact statement, Jessica Farrell said she felt she was “the one taken away” when the truth came out, spending 10 years in care. She felt she was “the one being punished”.
She described confronting Farrell, and said that over time she saw a different side to her father, who was trying to change. She said she forgave him, not because what he did could ever be excused, but because she needed to.
Farrell further pleaded guilty to two counts of indecently assaulting his son Christopher.
Reading his victim impact statement, he said the abuse affected his mental health, relationships and education as he was unable to trust others. He said developed addiction issues later in his teens to “try to block out the trauma”.
“I’ve learnt to be a man with no guidance, no love, no support from you,” he said, adding that all Farrell “taught me was pain”.
Farrell also pleaded guilty to raping and abusing a fourth daughter. She went into care when she was three, but would often run away, the court heard. She went to her mother’s house when she was about 11 and Farrell opened the door. The court heard this was the first time she ever met him.
She was 14 when Farrell sexually abused her for the first time while she was staying at her mother’s house. She said Farrell abused her on other occasions while she was living with her mother and raped her when she was 17 in March 1997 after he brought her to a gig.
In her statement, she said the abuse impacted her mental health and she developed anorexia. She does not think Farrell will ever “understand” the way he affected her life.
“You convinced so many people that you never did anything to us,” she said. “I was only a baby and you took my life away from me.”
The sergeant agreed with defence counsel that Farrell’s guilty pleas were of value to the prosecution. Defence counsel said her instructions were to apologise to each victim and that Farrell accepts and acknowledges the “profound consequences” of his actions.
She noted that her client’s last offence was in 1997. He has been in custody since he pleaded guilty in November.
