Serial child abuser jailed for relentless abuse of his young cousin

Declan Brennan

A serial child abuser who subjected his younger cousin to relentless and constant abuse for four years has received an 11-year prison sentence.

The 61-year-old man, who cannot be named to protect the identity of his victim, was convicted after a trial at the Central Criminal Court last May of seven counts of rape and six counts of indecent assault at his flat in Dublin city in the 1990s.

The boy was aged from 10 in 1991 when the abuse began and his abuser was 20 years older. The attacks involved oral and anal rapes and continued until 1997 when the victim told the man to stop.

Sentencing the man on Monday morning, Justice Eileen Creedon said that the abuse was an egregious breach of trust and dereliction of the man's duty of care to the child.

She suspended the final six months of an 11-year prison term and imposed a five-year period of post release supervision during which the man should engage with assessments for sex offender treatment programmes.

Assaults

At a sentence hearing last July, Eileen O'Leary SC, prosecuting, told the court that the victim went to gardaí as an adult and told them that his older cousin had carried out “relentless and constant” sexual assaults on him between 1991 and 1997, with a break of three years when the victim lived away from the defendant.

Counsel said the victim's parents were alcoholics and he had a fractured home life which was characterised by neglect with all of the man's siblings going into care at one stage.

The victim’s cousin would give the victim money and tell him he was his best friend and that the abuse was “our secret and to tell nobody”. The victim later told gardaí that “he didn't know any better and just went along with it”.

The man denies the offending. He is already serving a seven-year prison term, imposed in June 2020, for the multiple sexual assaults on four girls at his flat in Dublin on dates beginning in May 1994 and ending in February 2001.

Justice Creedon noted the fact that the man does not accept the jury verdict and has shown no remorse or offered no apology to the victim.

If you have been affected by any of the issues raised in this article, you can call the national 24-hour Rape Crisis Helpline at 1800 77 8888, access text service and webchat options at drcc.ie/services/helpline/, or visit Rape Crisis Help. 

In the case of an emergency, always dial 999/112.