A former Irish soldier has agreed to be registered in Britain as a sex offender as a condition of his release from a six-year sentence imposed in 1995 for sexually abusing his step-sisters in the 1970s and early 1980s.
Mr Justice Budd ordered that the 37-year-old man be released from Arbour Hill Prison on Monday so he can travel to Britain to live with a relative.
The man entered a bond to keep the peace. He undertook to remain under the voluntary supervision of the probation service and the police in Britain and to follow their instructions.
The man also undertook not to approach the victims or their families and agreed to be registered as a sex offender. He will attend court for a further review of the case on February 12th, 1999.
He was jailed at the Central Criminal Court in January 1995 after he affirmed District Court guilty pleas to three charges of unlawful carnal knowledge of his step-sisters from 1976 to 1983.
A step-sister had told the court that no sentence would be long enough. "He is being punished for something he done. I have been punished for something I didn't do," she said. She had come from England at the State's expense to give evidence.
Mr Justice Budd had fixed the case for review this month. When it came back before the court, Mr Barry White SC, defending, said his client had made progress in prison and intended living in Britain if released.
A probation officer told Mr George Birmingham, prosecuting, the British probation service had agreed to supervise the man and would notify the local police of his record.
In 1995 a garda told the court that the man's offences were discovered during a family row at Christmas 1993 in England.
The woman told the 1995 hearing she had difficulty in forming and developing relationships. She still had difficulty in sexual relationships with men.
She said that until Christmas 1993 she had been unaware of the offences against the other girls. She had since been taking antidepressant and tranquillising drugs. She agreed she had not accepted expert advice to go for counselling.
Mr Justice Budd had advised her to consider going for expert counselling. He had said that people were only now becoming aware of how sexual assaults affected them in later years.
Mr White had said it appeared the man and the others had lived in some form of harmony until his actions were found out. He had an otherwise clean record and a good work record and had a wife and two children to support.
Mr Birmingham told the court the man was originally from Belfast. He came across the Border at the start of the Troubles and lived as a brother with the girls. He shared a common mother with one of them. He had also served in the Irish Army for eight years. The family later moved abroad.
A Garda sergeant told Mr Birmingham the offences were revealed when one of the man's step-sisters claimed during the family row that he had sexually assaulted her during the 1970s. It emerged that, while assaulting another victim aged 10 at the time, the man had warned her to say nothing or "the men in the white coats would come and take her away". A complaint was later made to British police.
The Garda was contacted as the offences had taken place in Ireland. After making a statement, the man returned voluntarily and was charged in September 1994.