A PAEDOPHILE with violent tendencies was so ashamed after kidnapping and sexually assaulting a young boy at knife point that he rang gardai to ensure his victim got counselling, the Central Criminal Court heard yesterday.
Kenneth Lynch (21) made the bizarre phone call four days after he brought his 10 year old victim on an eight hour car trip. The journey took them from Meath through Louth and Down to Aldergrove Airport and back.
Lynch, a factory worker of Creewood, Slane, Co Meath, was remanded in custody for sentence until Thursday by Mr Justice Carney. He pleaded guilty to falsely imprisoning the boy in his car in Meath and later in various places in Northern Ireland on June 28th, 1995. He also admitted sexually assaulting the boy in circumstances of actual or threatened serious violence.
Outlining the facts leading up to his arrest, Det Sgt Martin Noone said Lynch rang Garda Catherine Cronin and told her he was concerned the boy might not have explained fully what happened to him. Lynch said he was afraid his victim might miss out on counselling for his ordeal. He also admitted he needed help himself to prevent him from kidnapping another boy in the future.
Garda Cronin agreed to meet Lynch at a Catholic church in Navan and arrested him.
Prosecution counsel, Mr Joseph Mathews SC, said while in Garda custody, Lynch gave "a full and very strange litany of the events surrounding the crazy attack on the child".
He explained he was driving from Navan to the main SlaneAshbourne Road when he saw the boy cycling past him after buying sweets in a local shop. He reversed back and found the boy and spoke to him.
He then produced a knife and forced the victim on to the floor of his car. He threatened him with death and drove off through Slane and Collon before parking in an isolated field hear Dunleer, Co Louth. In the field, he forced the boy to undress to his underpants and undressed himself before carrying out sexual assaults.
Lynch told gardai that at one stage, when he got angry, he threatened to kill the boy and put the knife to his neck and into his mouth. The boy pleaded for his life and they got into the car again. Lynch also suggested he might kill himself. In what Mr Mathews said was a further bizarre twist, which even Lynch could not explain, he drove his victim through Dundalk and Newry and on to the outskirts of Aldergrove Airport.
On the way back, he stopped a number of times for petrol and also shared sweets with his terrified victim. Once back in Co Meath, his victim directed him back to the scene of the initial kidnap and he let him out. Lynch told gardai he felt terrible about the incident and rang the Samaritans before ringing them.
Mr Mathews said the prosecution accepted medical reports which stated Lynch had an obsessive, compulsive propensity to violent paedophilic acts. Det Sgt Noone agreed with defence counsel, Mr Barry White SC, that Lynch had never come under Garda notice before and that his family were very respectable.
Mr White said there was no doubt his client had a serious problem in relation to his sexual orientation and had started attending treatment immediately after the incident. This type of unique treatment he was receiving was not available within the custodial regime to date, Mr White added.