A 45-year-old man has been convicted of sexually assaulting six young boys at a fast-food outlet in Co Cork.
A psychotherapist who observed him hugging and rubbing the young boys’ heads became alarmed at his behaviour and contacted gardaí. The children were aged between six and 11 years of age at the time.
Daniel Connolly of Arndathrush, Glengarriff, Co Cork, had denied eight counts of sexually assaulting the boys on three separate dates in August and September 2023 at a McDonald’s outlet in Cork city.
The jury at Cork Circuit Criminal Court unanimously convicted him on seven of the eight counts after three hours and 20 minutes of deliberation before finding him guilty of the eighth count by a 10-2 majority verdict some 10 minutes later after a five-day trial.
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The jury had heard how gardaí were contacted by Galway psychotherapist Karen Martin, who had noticed Connolly with the children when she took her nieces and nephews to a McDonald’s fast-food outlet in Cork city at about 6pm on September 23rd, 2023
Martin said: “My attention was brought to a man over to my left with five boys around him. I am a mother and I was struck by the five boys – they were really quiet. He kept continuously rubbing the head of one of the boys. It was unnatural. I felt sick looking at him.
“He was constantly rubbing him [his head). I have a boy myself – there is no way a boy would let you rub him for that period of time. It did not look right ... One of the boys came over and slapped his leg and said: ‘I don’t like you, I don’t like you.’ And I found that strange.”
She said she was “really struck by how meek, quiet and passive he [the boy] was” and she was equally struck when the man took the boys, who were all aged between seven and 12, to the toilet at the fast-food outlet, where they stayed for five to 10 minutes before returning to the dining area.
Gardaí obtained CCTV footage from McDonald’s and were able to identify the boys with Connolly as coming from three different families and they later spoke to their mothers, who confirmed they had first met Connolly with another woman whom they knew and he invited them all to a McDonald’s.
One mother said although she had not met Connolly often, he used to call to the area where they lived and collect the boys after he bought them a football and he used to ask them about soccer when he brought them to a McDonald’s in the area.
She said Connolly used to make contact with the boys on Snapchat and one of the boys had showed him where they lived as she confirmed that Connolly had also taken the boys swimming five or six times.
“They never went [with him] on their own, they would go as a group and he could collect them,” said the woman, adding that any time she rang Connolly, he would also answer immediately and say that he would drop them home and he usually would drop them back within an hour.
Det Garda Paul Cogan of the Cork city protective services unit said Connolly admitted bringing the boys to McDonald’s, a swimming pool and Fitzgerald Park but denied being a paedophile or having any desire to sexually exploit them and said he hugged them only because they hugged him.
Prosecution barrister Paula McCarthy said in her closing speech that they had seen video evidence from McDonald’s of Connolly kissing one boy on the head and in two cases of him patting a boy on the buttocks and that there didn’t have to be touching of private parts for indecency to occur.
Defence counsel Ray Boland said in his closing speech: “The prosecution are saying this is creepy, this is weird, there is a bit of a bang off it. Maybe it is the behaviour of a lonely person. He could be very important to these kids. They were dying to go out with him.”
Judge Helen Boyle granted defence barrister Caroline O’Connell free legal aid to obtain a psychologist’s report on Connolly and she also ordered a prison governor’s report before she remanded him in custody for sentence on June 26th.
