Pervert O’Dea convicted of attacks on other girls

TWO years after Patrick O’Dea raped Leona O’Callaghan for the final time, he targeted another young girl.

The Central Criminal Court yesterday heard that O’Dea is serving a 15-year sentence for the multiple rape and sexual assaults of the young girl over a six-year period between 1998 and 2004.

And among his 42 previous convictions is a single sexual assault of a third girl, who was under the age of 10.

Ms Justice Deirdre Murphy was told O’Dea submitted to a psychological assessment before sentencing.

This assessment places O’Dea at an above-average risk of sexual re-offending and states that he has no real insight into the damage caused by his crimes, the court was told.

Ms Justice Murphy said that O’Dea’s other offending postdates the attacks on Ms O’Callaghan, and they showed an ongoing pattern of offences against young girls.

In her victim impact statement, Ms O’Callaghan said O’Dea manipulated her, isolating her from family and friends.

He first sexually assaulted her at a local waste ground.

The abuse continued at various locations.

“As a young child, you manipulated my mind into believing that the disgusting things you did to me you did out of love,” Ms O’Callaghan said.

“You slowly but surely turned me against everyone that loved me and made me paranoid about their motives until the only person that I felt genuinely cared about me and the only person I could trust was you.

“It is only in the past two years that I have learned that ending the pain is possible without ending my life.”