Donegal man (60s) found guilty on 34 historical sex charges after trial

A Donegal man has been found guilty on a slew of historical sex charges.

After 11 days at Letterkenny Circuit Court, the man, who is in his 60s, was found unanimously guilty on 34 charges. 

The offences related to nine separate defendants and spanned dates between 1981 and 1998 at several different locations within County Donegal.

The man cannot be named at this stage for legal reasons due to the nature of the alleged offending and to protect the anonymity of the complainants. 

The 34 charges included 18 of sexual assault, 10 of indecent assault, five of attempted indecent assault and one of an attempted sexual assault.

All nine complainants were present in court throughout the trial. Ten of the charges were in respect of one complainant.

A jury of six men and six women deliberated for over four hours before delivering a guilty verdict on 34 charges.

The man was remanded in custody after Judge John Aylmer heard that An Garda Siochana had concerns about the man being admitted to bail and returning to his local area.

The prosecution was led by Ms Fiona Crawford BL, instructed by State Solicitor for Donegal, Mr Kieran Dillon while the accused man was represented by Mr Colm Smyth SC with Mr Ciaran O’Rourke BL, instructed by solicitor Mr Frank Dorrian.

The Court heard that the defendant - who pleaded guilty to all charges when he was initially arraigned before Judge Aylmer -  is not related to any of the complainants and was a friend to their parents.

At the outset, the man pleaded not guilty to 60 charges with 25 of those withdrawn by the prosecution while the jury was directed to acquit the man on a 35th charge, one of an alleged indecent assault from 1978. 

One of the complainants, a female, told how she stood in a field and prayed “that this would all stop”. The woman’s voice quivered as she recalled the incidents and she said: “I promised that I wouldn’t shed a tear for him” before continuing with her evidence.

The woman told the court that the defendant had followed her into the kitchen of her own home. He placed her sitting on a chair at the table before locking his legs across her “so that I couldn’t escape”. She recalled that the man sexually assaulted her by touching her vagina.

She told the court of another incident when she was asked to go and help the man with a task at his house. She recalled being told to stand on top of a brick and “i knew it wasn’t going to be good”.

The defendant made her face the opposite direction and she heard him unzip his trousers and told her: “Stop the nonsense” when she attempted to get away.

She said the man again sexually assaulted her on this occasion after which she ran out of the house to a nearby field. “I stood there and prayed that this would stop” she said.

She recalled, on another occasion being told to go up a ladder into an attic despite protesting that she was scared of the dark.

“I was so scared,” she said. “Frightened. Anxious. Everything was going through my head. When I got to the top, I remember looking down and thinking to myself: ‘If I fell down, if I walked to the attic hole and fell down it would be all over. The pain would be all over’.”

The woman said the man approached her close to his home on a further date when he “just picked me up”. She told the court that the man took her to a shed and pulled her trousers down before attempting to perform a sexual act on her.

“At that point, I started to move and got out of it,” she said. “I ran as fast as I could.”

Under cross examination from Mr Smyth, barrister for the accused, the woman said she was adamant with her recall of matters: “I remember as a child what happened to me. That memory will not go.”

Another complainant said he was between nine and 12 years old when he was helping the man at his home and he pulled his pants down before “fondling” with his penis. 

A third complainant told the court that he was in a vehicle with the accused man when he pulled into a lay-by and attempted to sexually assault him. 

‘“I crouched into the footwell of the vehicle,” the man said. “I told him to get away. Then, he drove on home and didn’t say anything.”

Another complainant said that she was sexually assaulted  “seven to 10 times, if not more” by the accused man. 

“I just felt trapped. Very very scared,” she told the jury. “I knew that I had to scream and do something to get away from him. He just told me to calm down.”

A third male complainant said he was between five and seven when the defendant began touching his private parts after he had gone to the toilet. The man said he knew it was not right and pulled away.

One man gave harrowing details of incidents, including one where the defendant "tucked his ankles around my ankle" and pinned him to the couch before sexually assaulting him by placing his hand down his underpants and rubbing his penis.

The man wept as he recounted the ordeal, saying that the accused man simply got up, rubbed his hands and that he just left him sitting there.

Another man recalled that the accused would come in behind him and rub his penis outside of his trousers. He said he could remember a particular time as it coincided with the period when Donegal won the All-Ireland in 1992 and said the offending began when he was eight and continued until he was around 15.

A further complainant said she was 11 when the accused man came from behind her and grabbed her breasts. 

“He was very creepy,” she said. “He would say uncomfortable things…As a child, I didn’t like being around him.”

A ninth witness told the trial that she was “more developed” as a 10-year-old and the accused man would come from behind her and “brush against” her breast area.

Detective Garda Darren Carter told how the accused replied in an interview following his arrest: “I can’t believe my ears what I am hearing”.

Earlier in the trial, Mr Smyth said that when the allegations were put to his client, the man responded: “I never touched any of them.”

The defence called several witnesses, who told how the accused man was out of the country for various long periods during the relevant timeframe.

Ms Crawford asked the jury to return guilty verdicts on the 34 charges.

“You heard with clarity the way they gave their accounts,” Ms Crawford told the jury. “You heard clear memories, of a descriptive nature, and you heard how they described where they were positioned at the time.” 

Mr Smyth said his client initially came before the court on 60 charges, but 25 were withdrawn and 28 amendments were made to the remaining counts. 

Mr Smyth said the case was “showered with doubt” and “showered with the taint of contamination on a great scale”.

“Put an end to this nightmare for (defendant),” Mr Smyth told the jury. “There is doubt, reasonable doubt, and I ask you to give him the benefit of the doubt and acquit him on all remaining charges.”

The trial began on February 4 and took the duration of a three-week sitting at Letterkenny courthouse to be heard.

Following the guilty verdict, Judge Aylmer remanded the defendant in custody for sentencing, which is scheduled to take place during the May session of Letterkenny Circuit Court.

“All the lies work, I must start telling the lies” the man said from the body of the court after being found guilty.

In a highly-charged and emotional courtroom, some of the victims cried as each of the 34 guilty verdicts was read into the record by the court registrar.