A HOMELESS pensioner who sexually abused children for over 50 years was described as a “predator with a high risk of reoffending” when he was jailed for six years for sexually assaulting two young boys in a secluded hut in May, 2011. At last week’s sitting of Limerick Circuit Court, Judge Carroll Moran heard how Douglas Taaffe befriended two young boys aged nine and ten and rewarded them with minerals, cigarettes and treats for letting him fondle their private parts and kiss them on the lips.
With 27 previous convictions for similar offences, Taaffe was staying in temporary accommodation at St Patrick’s Hostel on Clare Street after he was released from prison in April 2010. The abuse occurred over a number of weeks at hut hidden in overgrowth on the canal banks near Clare Street in Limerick City.
The matter came to light after the mother of one of the boys found him with the cigarettes and questioned him as to where he got them. He told her he would be meeting the man who gave them to him the following week. Along with a neighbour and her young son, the mother went to the rendezvous and confronted Taaffe after which she made a complaint to gardai.
He was interviewed by gardai, charged with the offences and remanded in custody since February of this year.
Andrew Sexton SC, told the court that the defendant lived a “sad a depraved life after being instutionalised since he was just six months old”. He had “no friends, no family, a low level of education and a history of being the victim of abuse in his younger years”.
He had been awarded compensation from the redress board for abuse he suffered while in Artane Industrial School and that money was in turn passed on as compensation to a victim he abused in Clonmel.
He knew he had done wrong and had pleaded guilty to the charges.
Mr Sexton said that Taaffe was “living in a hostel, had a room with a single bed, a shared bathroom with no life… no different from where he is now in prison.
Judge Moran said that the numerous previous convictions for child abuse were of serious concern adding that the offences now before the court were “premeditated and planned”. The Probation Services concluded that Taaffe was a man who had a “high risk of reoffending”.
He was sentenced to six years in prison with the final 18 months suspended for a period six years on condition that he would have no unsupervised contact with children under 18 years. He was also added to the sex offenders register for life.
