This article is from page 12 of the 2012-03-27 edition of The Clare People. OCR mistakes are to be expected so download the original SWF or the rendered page 12 JPG
A 67-YEAR-OLD man who has pleaded guilty to charges of indecent assault will be sentenced in May.
The man, who cannot be named for legal reasons, was due to be sentenced at Ennis Circuit Court yesterday. However Judge Caroll Moran said that given the “very serious nature of the abuse” he was not happy to pass sentence immediately.
He adjourned sentencing until May 14. “I will finalise it then,” he added.
The assaults occurred over a twoyear period in Clare in the late 1960s when the man was in his twenties and the victim was a young teenager.
The court heard that the man, who now suffers from health problems, was arrested by Gardaí in July 2009. His barrister, Mark Nicholas said his client had co-operated and owned up to the abuse. He said his client had expressed remorse about his crime to Gardaí during interviews. Mr Nicholas said that this was in no way meant to minimise the hurt suffered by the victim. He said, “What happened was despicable, disgraceful and should not have happened.”
Mr Nicholas paid tribute to the victim’s bravery in coming forward.
Mr Nicholas told the court that the man had received a very poor education, is illiterate and could be regarded as someone who is in a “lower intellectual bracket”.
He said he suffered from Jacobs Syndrome, a sex chromosome ab- normality. He said the man has been the care of the Clare Health Services since 1984. He said the man’s significant regime of monitoring and antitestosterone medication is closely supervised by medical professionals and the man’s family.
The court heard that the man has been placed on sex offender’s register. Mr Nicholas said the moniker of “pedophile” will forever be attached to the man.
The victim, who is now in his 50s, previously told the court that he twice tried to commit suicide to end what he called the “pain of my life”.
In a victim impact statement, the man said the accused had robbed him of his “innocence, childhood and my sanity”.