A CONVICTED sex offender who temporarily moved to Limerick and failed to notify gardai of his change of address has been remanded on bail to appear before Dublin Circuit Court for a judge to consider activating a suspended portion of the original sex offence sentence. Leo Forde (28), with an address in Laghey Road, Ballyshannon, Co Donegal, was convicted and sentenced to three years in prison for sexually assaulting a 13-year-old schoolgirl in 2003.
He was the fifth person to be convicted of sex crimes against the girl, who was assaulted by him three times at school shed when he was 19 and she was 13.
Donegal Circuit Court suspended the last year of the sentence, and Forde was released during Christmas week last year.
Last March, he was sentenced to nine months in prison for failing to notify gardaí of a change of address within seven days of his release from prison. That sentence was suspended for a period of two years by Judge Eamon O’Brien at Limerick District Court.
Prior to his conviction, Forde was a maintenance worker at a Limerick apartment block but had since lost his job
Gardai arrested him in Limerick on December 31 last after he was detained by security staff in Dunnes on Harvey’s Quay for the theft of a box of Budweiser worth €18. He was also charged with the theft of a bottle of wine at a Spar store on Henry Street, three days earlier.
Limerick District Court was told last week that he had moved to an address in Corbally for a brief period in August but failed to notify Gardaí contrary to section 12 of the Criminal Law Rape Act. As his name is on the list of registered sex offenders, he is obliged to notify gardai within seven days of a change of address.
Sgt. Joe McGlynn said that Mr Forde had received a suspended sentence for a similar offence in March of this year.
Judge Eugene O’Kelly questioned Tom Kiely solicitor as to whether or not his client was “burying his head in the sand”.
He said the only course of action open to the court was to refer the accused man back to Dublin Circuit Court on a section 99 referral for the court to consider the matter of the suspended element of the original sentence in 2010.
Judge O’Kelly adjourned the matter until January 11 to the Dublin Circuit Court callover list and Leo Forde was released on the same terms of his High Court bail to reside at his address in Ballyshannon, Donegal.
