A 78 YEAR OLD Co Offaly man who repaid a woman's charity by raping her son after plying him with drink until he fell asleep has been jailed for five years.
"In another age and society, a rapier would have distributed this man's guts on the footpath", Mr Justice Flood told the Central Criminal Court.
The court was told the pensioner had raped and sexually assaulted the boy during the time he was aged between eight and 12. The boy had stayed for a period in the man's house next door to his own home to care for him during an illness.
"I gave what I thought was Christian charity and in the end subjected my son to his abuse. He took away his childhood. I think God will have to forgive him, because I can't", the boy's mother told the court.
Mr Justice Flood said the man's action was a negation of all the charity tendered to him by the family. "It constitutes a gross act of depravity, devoid of all sense of decency", he said.
If the defendant had been younger, he would have had no hesitation in jailing him for up to 10 years. The only factors which could be taken into consideration in the defendant's favour "in muted terms" were his age and his apparent health.
Mr Justice Flood said the probation reports indicated that at least in the early stages the man did not accept the magnitude of the offence, the damage done to his victim or the gravity of the awful position he was in. The victim was entitled to expect the court to take into account the hurt to him and his family "and that hurt is extreme".
The judge said that he had sympathy for Mr Seamus Sorahan SC, defending, who had to do his job and try to plead for leniency on the pensioner's behalf.
The defendant pleaded guilty to two charges of raping the boy, who is now 14, under Section 4 of the Criminal Law (Rape) (Amendment) Act, 1990, he also pleaded guilty to two charges of sexually assaulting him. The charges were representative of continued abuse which began in 1989 and continued for about four years.
The court also took into account abuse which the defendant carried out on his grand nephew years earlier. That victim, now aged 28, had suffered a breakdown which had halted a promising career in Britain.
Mr George Birmingham, prosecuting, said in September 1993 the boy finally found the courage to tell his mother about the abuse after watching a feature on the Late Late Show about the Stay Safe anti abuse programme in schools.
The defendant had been present in the boy's house, but five minutes after the start of the programme he had made an excuse and left. The boy then asked his mother how she would react if one of her children had been abused. When she told him she would be supportive he revealed that he had been a victim.
The family contacted a solicitor, who put them in touch with the Midland Health Board. In September 1995 a complaint was made to gardai and the defendant was interviewed. Initially, he denied the allegations, but later admitted abusing his grand nephew years earlier before moving on to the victim in this case and raping him about 20 times.
The defendant admitted that on one occasion he gave the victim vodka until he fell asleep and then he buggered him. On other occasions he gave the boy whiskey and sherry, the court was told.
The boy's mother said her family had moved to the housing estate where the defendant lived almost 20 years ago. The whole community worked together to look after the elderly and when she herself was incapacitated the defendant would call into her and run messages for her on his way back from Mass.
The defendant had become very ill in 1989 and she had asked her eldest son to help look after him, but he was too busy with exams, so the responsibility had fallen to the victim, and he had stayed in the defendant's house to look after him.
The woman continued: Gradually, I found my son becoming strange. My husband began to worry. My son moved back, but there was a terrible change in him. If I or my husband scolded him, his eyes would pop out."
She said his school work had deteriorated and he was ostracised in school and had no friends.
By 1993, her son was refusing to go to the defendant's house. In September 1993 the defendant, as usual, was in her house watching the television. When the Late Late Show started, he left.
"Gradually, I could feel an air of expectation, and then [her son] asked me what sexual abuse was. She said she explained this and a short time later her son said: `Mammy, I was abused'. He [the defendant] told him daft things about men and religion and he told him men could have babies."
Mr Sorahan said his client had revealed to him that he thought himself "evil" for committing the crimes.
Mr Justice Flood said he hoped the authorities would detain the pensioner in "a siting appropriate to his age".