A MAN HAS been jailed for nine years for the “reprehensible” sexual abuse of his partner’s two sons.
Dublin Circuit Criminal Court heard the man would give his victims money or offer to buy them drinks. The offending came to light after the older victim suspected that the man may be abusing his younger brother also.
The elder victim took an overdose of tablets before revealing what had been happening to him.
The accused man initially denied the abuse after his arrest. He later claimed during garda interview that he couldn’t remember the incidents but that the boys were not liars.
The 50-year old Dublin man, who cannot be named to protect his victims’ identities, pleaded guilty to ten counts of sexual assault of the older boy at various locations on dates between 2009 and 2015.
He also pleaded guilty to sexual assault, attempted sexual assault and one count of sexual exploitation of the younger boy on dates in 2015.
‘Felt afraid and would cry’
The abuse of the older boy began when he was 13 years old and he initially believed it was a mistake. He had gone to stay in the accused man’s house after attending a disco and woke up to find the accused man touching his penis. He jumped up and the accused man laughed and left.
The abuse continued regularly until 2013 with the man masturbating and touching the boy at various locations including in the boy’s home. The child felt afraid and would cry during the abuse.
The accused man, who occasionally stayed over, would go into the boy’s room at night on the pretext of checking on him or would pretend to go to the toilet. The abuse would stop if he heard the boy’s mother moving around the house.
The boy would lie on his side away from the accused, as he could not bear to look at him. He sometimes pretended to be asleep and when he cried the accused man told not to be a baby.
The boy had began to stay away from home in order to avoid the abuse and also began abusing cocaine and ecstasy. He owed money for drugs and asked the accused man for money.
The accused man asked him to come to his house on several occasions where he sexually assaulted him before giving him money. During the final incident in 2015 the elder victim pretended to be on the phone which appeared to give the accused man a fright.
Later that year the elder victim overheard the accused man offering his younger brother drink and started worrying that the same thing was happening to his brother. He walked in on the accused man and noticed that his brother seemed startled and agitated. His brother did not reveal anything.
The elder victim took an overdose of tablets and then told his girlfriend he had been abused. She told her father.
A garda investigation began and revealed that the accused had started to initiate sexual approaches to the younger brother and was sending him messages in relation to masturbation.
The younger victim reported that two incident of abuse had taken place in 2015 and a third attempted incident had taken place which was the one his elder brother had walked in on. The younger victim said the accused man had told him not to tell anyone.
‘Man deserved lengthy term’
Speaking in court today Judge Martin Nolan said he wished to “applaud” both young men in coming forward to tell their stories, noting that “it was a hard thing to do, but necessary”.
He said he hoped they both recovered and also commended the gardaí for their hard work in this difficult case.
In passing the nine year jail term, Judge Nolan said he did not accept that the man didn’t know what he was doing to the boys.
He described the offending as “reprehensible” and said the man had used the two young boys “to satisfy his baser urges”. He said that the man deserved his lengthy term in custody.
Victim impact statements were handed into court on behalf of the two boys but not read in open court.
Brian Gageby BL, defending, submitted that he couldn’t minimise the offending, but asked Judge Nolan to take into account his client’s good work history, genuine remorse and early guilty plea. He handed in a letter of apology written by the man.
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