A 60-year-old man who still denies raping a girl 30 years ago and sexually abusing her two sisters has been jailed for seven years, put on the RUC's sex offenders' register for life and ordered to complete 18 months' probation on his release from prison.
James McKergan, of Alexander Crescent, Limavady, Co Derry, was convicted in June of raping and indecently assaulting one girl, indecently assaulting another and gross indecency with their sister between January 1970 and December 1971, when they were aged between seven and 10.
Mr David Hunter QC, defending, told Ballymena Crown Court sitting in Belfast that while McKergan has continually denied the offences the court was not dealing with a serial or repeating abuser and his offences were isolated episodes.