11 years for sex abuse of 2 boys

Respected member of agricultural community in the midlands lacked empathy for his victims, says judge

A MAN who was regarded as a respected member of a community in the midlands was sentenced to 11 years in prison this week for the repeated sexual assault of two underage boys.

The man, who is a well-known member of a large national agricultural organisation, was also given a suspended sentence for sending a picture of himself performing a sexual act to a minor on the social media channel, Snapchat.

He sent the image while on bail on one of the sexual assault charges.

The man, who is in his mid-40s, came to the attention of gardaí after one of his victims set up a false social media account to show he was trying to procure sex from younger males.

The victim, who is no longer a child, subsequently went to the gardaí in July 2019.

This week, the abuser was jailed after he was sentenced at a sitting of the Circuit Court in the midlands.

In his judgment, Judge Keenan Johnson said the first known offence happened when the man and one of his victims – who was just 13 years old at the time – were at a sports centre together.

The judge said the victim recalled pulling away and pleading with the accused to leave him alone after he was groped.

The abuser then offered him cigarettes, and afterwards they moved behind a lorry, where the victim was sexually assaulted.

The victim said that over the next eight to ten years, he suffered at least 100 different incidents of abuse at the hands of the man.

One of the incidents occurred at the home of the accused’s elderly parents the night before they attended a national agricultural event.

When he was being abused, the victim said the accused told him he would be given cigarettes at the event the following day.

He also recalled that the accused allowed him to drive a Jeep when he was just 14, and that he was assaulted while driving.

The victim said he was brainwashed by the accused.

He told the court, the abuse affected his life greatly as he got older.

He felt ‘terrible guilt’ over what had happened. He felt that he could not tell anybody about the abuse and that he had brought shame on his family.

Eventually, he disclosed the abuse to a doctor. But he still felt that no one would believe him, so he set up a fake account on the Grindr dating app and pretended to be a 16-year-old boy.

His abuser fell for the trap and, at that point, he went to the gardaí and made a full statement of complaint.

The accused was arrested and interviewed on November 5, 2019.

At the time, the accused acknowledged he had sexual relations with the victim, but said this happened when he was over 17. He refused to accept he had abused the child.

The judge said that in May 2022, gardaí received a report of abuse from a second victim.

This victim said the abuse first happened in 2015, when he was just 12, while they were travelling together in a truck. Another incident occurred when the victim was between 13 and 14. The accused was giving him a lift to school when he said he gave him €20 to have oral sex with him.

The victim said his childhood and adolescence have been robbed from him as a result of the abuse, and not a single day goes when he does not think about what the accused did to him.

He said he finds it hard to meet new people, let alone trust them, and that he has very few friends and has become socially isolated.

The victim said he left school because of the abuse, and stated in evidence that the accused had robbed him of his education.

He said the abuse had an appalling effect on him and that he turned to drink and cannabis to block it out.

He had ‘a build-up of anger’ and he started rows with anyone.

He also stated he did not care if he lived or died.

A third child involved in the case said he made it ‘abundantly clear’ to the accused that he was under 16 years old when the man sent him a lurid video on Snapchat in February of this year.

In this case, the victim alerted his mother, who then contacted gardaí.

When the accused was arrested and interviewed, he claimed that he thought the victim was 18 or 20 years old. He also claimed he had not, to his knowledge, sent a video to the teenager of himself performing a sex act.

Judge Keenan sentenced him to three years for this crime, suspended for seven years.

The accused was charged on March 28, 2023.

At that stage his bail was revoked and he has been in custody since.

Sentencing the man this week, Judge Keenan said the first two young men had suffered greatly.

He said all the young men showed great bravery in recounting their abuse, and he urged them never to forget this.

He said he hoped they could put their awful experiences behind them.

In relation to the continuous abuse of the first two boys, the judge said it was ‘extraordinary to think that both of them were for a period at the same time victims of the accused’.

He added: ‘This would appear to indicate that the accused has an insatiable sexual appetite and an unhealthy and inappropriate attraction towards young boys.

‘This is a major concern from the court’s perspective,’ Judge Keenan added.

He noted that the abuser said he is now ‘truly sorry for any distress or torment caused to the victims’.

But the judge added: ‘As already indicated, the court is not convinced that the accused does fully appreciate the gravity of his offending. The probation officer noted that the accused lacked empathy towards the victims.’

He also said he ‘cannot but have sympathy’ for the accused’s elderly parents, who were ‘kept completely in the dark in relation to his nefarious activities’. He said: ‘It’s clear that the incarceration of the accused has negatively impacted on his elderly parents who were totally innocent of any wrongdoing.’

The accused was sentenced to a total of 11 years in prison. This comprised three consecutive three-year terms, which were reduced to six years in mitigation on some of the counts.

On a further count, he was sentenced to five years, to run consecutive to the six-year term. He was also given a concurrent 10-year sentence, which was reduced to eight years with other offences taken into consideration. All terms were backdated to the date he went into custody.

Victim set up a fake account on the Grindr dating app