LAWYERS for a 37-year-old Limerick man who sexually abused a six year old boy in a wooded area during the summer of 1993 have asked a sentencing judge to consider applying the probation act and not record a conviction against him.
The now 37-year-old man pleaded guilty at Central Criminal Court to attempted rape on the basis of full details of the offending being heard by the court.
Over the weekend, Mr Justice Paul Carney has been asked not to record the conviction as the offender is married and living in America.
Isobel Kennedy SC said that a conviction would prevent him returning to his US home.
After hearing the submission by the defence counsel, Mr Justice Carney asked: “If I apply the Probation Act what do you think every rape crisis centre and tabloid newspaper in the country is going to do?”
“And they’re not going to go after you Ms Kennedy,” he continued.
Prosecuting counsel Maurice Coffey BL read from the complainant’s victim impact statement who wrote that he still suffers night terrors as a result of the abuse.
“He has caused an irreparable amount of damage to my life”, the victim wrote. He called his abuser “aggressive, manipulating, dominating and most of all, a predator.”
Incidents of oral rape, touching and molestation were outlined to the court by gardai. The molestation stopped in September of the same year.
