‘Pure evil’ man blackmailed schoolgirl, 14, into sex acts

A MAN with a sick fetish for girls in school uniforms who used threats of violence and blackmail to sexually assault a schoolgirl has been described as ‘pure evil’ by his victim.

Agricultural contractor Alan Feehily, 27, demanded his victim take pictures of herself naked and video herself performing sexual acts before sending the content to his mobile phone.

He then used these images to blackmail her further. She said he used her ‘like a puppet’ to perform degrading sexual acts.

Detective Adrian Fehily told the sentence hearing last Friday the girl was aged between 14 and 17 and that Feehily was aged between 22 and 24 at the time of the offences.

He said Feehily became acquainted with the girl when she was 14 through another person and disapproved when he heard she had a 15-year-old boyfriend. He threatened to tell her parents about the boy if she didn’t give him a kiss. The girl refused but he kept threatening to tell if she didn’t kiss him.

She finally relented and kissed him. After that, the threats became more aggressive and Feehily blackmailed her by threatening to tell her parents she had kissed him.

Det Fehily said the accused began bringing the girl to school in his car and drove her to various locations before using threats of violence to get her to perform sexual acts on him against her will while she was wearing her school uniform. He would collect her after school and subject her to the same abuse.

The seriousness of the sexual assaults progressed until one day Feehily demanded the girl have full sexual intercourse with him after he had collected her from school. The court was told Feehily ‘created rules’ which the victim had to obey.

‘She would have to ring him daily to let him know where she was and what she was doing and would have to reply to his persistent text messages within ten minutes.

‘He demanded that she take pictures of herself naked and video herself performing sexual acts before forwarding the content to his phone. He used these images to blackmail her further. She was 16-years-old at the time,’ Det Fehily said.

The abuse ended when the girl confided in a friend, and soon after the gardaí were contacted.

Feehily was arrested and his phone examined. Offending photos and videos of the victim were stored on the device.

He was interviewed on six occasions and at all times claimed the sex was consensual. He admitted he had sex with the underage girl on a number of occasions. He denied her claims that she had consented out of fear and because of the threats he made.

Bernard Madden SC, defending, said a probation officer had carried out a partial risk assessment on Feehily, and her report stated that he would be a suitable candidate to carry out community service in lieu of a prison sentence.

Feehily told the probation officer he had been in a consensual relationship with the girl. The probation officer stated in her report that more time was needed to carry out a full risk assessment and Feehily would benefit from the ongoing support of the probation service.

Mr Madden asked for sentence to be adjourned so a comprehensive analysis and risk assessment on his client be completed.

Referring to a report which was handed into court, Mr Madden said it had found his client’s attitude to be: ‘Minimisation of offending and lack of empathy for the victim along with a failure to recognise a fetish for young girls in uniform.’

He said his client had assessed as being at ‘low to moderate risk of re-offending’ because of his inability to see the harm of his actions.

Judge Rory McCabe said there was compelling evidence of conduct that constituted grooming and that conduct had escalated to manipulation, domination, threats and aggression.

The judge said Feehily, from Milebush, Castlebar, Co. Mayo, had subjected the girl to a pattern of abuse of the grossest kind. He said Feehily’s conduct demonstrated ‘a dangerous propensity to aggression, and manipulation to a very high degree’.

The victim, he said, had been diagnosed with Post Traumatic Stress Disorder as a direct result of the years of sexual trauma she had suffered from a young age.

Noting the maximum sentence for the offence of defilement of a child was five years, Judge McCabe indicated a four-year sentence for each offence to be appropriate, giving a 20% discount, he said, for the ‘limited’ mitigating factors.

However, he adjourned finalisation of that sentence to May 10 and directed the probation officer complete a full risk assessment of Feehily in the interim.

The threats became more aggressive The victim had PTSD due to the abuse