OH GOD I HATE HIM..
Evil beast caged for decade-long series of sex attacks on wife’s teenage sisters
We can get on with our lives. It’s been ongoing for the past 30 years or more
DEIRDRE FAHY
CENTRAL CRIMINAL COURT YESTERDAY
A BROTHER-IN-LAW from hell was yesterday locked up for a string of sex attacks that lasted over a decade.
Vile Bartholomew “Batty” Prendergast, 65, was caged for eight-and-a-half years.
The former council worker and musician, from Dungarvan, Co Waterford, raped and abused his wife’s two younger sisters when they were in their teens and a third woman, who was aged just nine at the time.
Speaking outside the Central Criminal Court, Deirdre Fahy, 52, said: “Oh God, I hate him. To see him standing there, it’s awful.”
She and her sister, Stephanie Hickey, 47, who waived their right to anonymity, walked from court holding hands after the hearing.
The pervert was brought to the dock clutching his personal belongings in a small plastic bag. Dressed in a navy suit and blue shirt, he showed no reaction when Judge Eileen Creedon read out the sentence.
She jailed him for a total of 10 years, with the last 18 months suspended.
But with automatic remission of 25% on all prison terms, he could be back on the streets in early 2025.
He will be placed on the Sex Offenders’ Register for life and has been ordered to complete a rehabilitation programme.
Prendergast only spoke when the judge told him to enter into a peace bond, which will come into effect from the day he is released.
He said: “Yes, I agree. I do.” The abuse took place between 1979 and 1991. He was married to the victims’ older sister, but they have since separated. The judge said Ms Fahy was still in her school uniform when the accused lured her away by offering her a lift to a shop and assaulted her in his car.
Ms Hickey made herself sick after the
“choking feeling and taste” she was left with after the brutal assaults.
Prendergast pleaded guilty to two counts of rape and 13 counts of indecent assault on Ms Hickey at locations in Co Waterford and Co Tipperary on dates between 1983 and 1987, when she was aged between 12 and 15. He also pleaded guilty to one count of indecent assault against Ms Fahy on a date between 1979 and 1981, while she was aged between 13 and 14. There were also two further counts of indecent assault of a third woman on dates between 1988 and 1991, while she was between nine and 12.
At a hearing in July, Ms Hickey read her victim impact statement, saying she had been led to believe by a family friend, a priest, that in the 1980s Prendergast had been “fixed”. Deirdre Fahy and Stephanie Hickey She added: “If you were supposedly fixed why did you continue to abuse me for years after?
“I need answers from whom you spoke to to help you at this time and again I wasn’t protected. This hurt goes on.
“I lost my virginity because of you and I wasn’t even old enough to understand what you were taking from me.
“For this I will never ever forgive you.”
Speaking after the sentencing, Ms Fahy said: “Obviously we would have preferred more [than eight years] but it’s over now, thank God.
“We can get on with our lives. It’s been ongoing now the past 30 years or more, so we are glad now to have it over with.”
She urged all victims of abuse to report the crimes.
Ms Fahy said: “Just come forward, there’s no shame in it, certainly no shame.”