A SERIAL SEXUAL abuser and “true predator” who groomed and abused teenage girls in his flat has been jailed for seven years.

The Central Criminal Court heard that from May 1994 up to February 2001 the 58-year-old man carried out sexual assaults on a total of fourteen children.

He pleaded guilty in 2002 to attacks on ten of these victims and received a prison sentence of nine years with two suspended. While being interviewed by gardaí, he denied sexually assaulting three other children.

He continued to deny these offences during a trial at the Central Criminal Court last March but a jury convicted him of 30 counts of sexual assaults of these three girls and a fourth girl.

The Dublin man cannot be named to protect the identities of the victims, some of whom wish to maintain their statutory anonymity.

Passing sentence today, Justice Tara Burns described the man as “a true predator”. She said he offered the victims an easy-going place of refuge and bribed them with money, cigarettes and jewellery.

Justice Burns said he then “pounced and subjected them to his insidious sexual activity”. She said he was careful not to go too far and cause them to “abandon his lair”.

She said the case was aggravated by the age of the victims, the length of time over which the abuse occurred, the grooming of the girls, his lack of remorse, his previous convictions for sexual offending and his exploitation of the situations and vulnerabilities of the victims.

Justice Burns said that in light of the fact that the case dealt with four separate victims, she had decided to impose consecutive sentences, which came to a total of seven years.

The court heard the man has been convicted in both Ireland and the UK for burglary offences. He was extradited from the UK to face trial and has been in custody since March 2018.

At a previous sentencing hearing, a local garda agreed with Giollaíoda Ó Lideadha SC, defending, that while his client was in the UK he worked at a homeless charity centre. The garda agreed that no charges have been levelled against the man arising from this period.

Ó Lideadha said his client was subject to a very substantial prison sentence relating to the previous offences of sexual assault. He said that his client did a course while in custody which led to him “fully recognising that what he did was wrong and resolving to never do it again”.

Paul Murray SC, prosecuting, told the court that while the first victim did not wish to make a victim impact statement, each of the remaining three women had made statements.

In her victim impact statement, which was read before the court by Murray, the second woman said that for many years this affected her badly. She said she rebelled at home and got in trouble with the law.

The second woman said that she felt “dirty, sick and ashamed” of the person she is today for allowing this to happen to her.

“I am not a victim anymore, I am a survivor,” the woman said.

In her victim impact statement, which was read before the court by Murray, the third woman said that she sometimes hated herself for not telling anyone what happened to her at the time.

She said she was “so glad he has been found guilty of his disgusting crimes”. She said she was glad it was all over and done with and that she had gotten justice.

In her victim impact statement, which she read before the court, the fourth woman said that she turned to drugs at a young age and ended up in a number of abusive relationships.

She said she had suffered sleep paralysis and night terrors and had had to “dip in and out” of counselling since her early twenties. She said she was extremely over-protective of her daughter and does not let anyone else look after her.

She said the man had “robbed us all of our childhood and innocence”. She said he would “not hold any power over us ever again”.