Dublin man who groomed and sexually assaulted six children to be sentenced

Declan Brennan

An engineer who spent years grooming six children whom he sexually assaulted over seven years will be sentenced later this month.

The 63-year-old Dublin man pleaded guilty at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court to 10 sample counts of indecent and sexual assaults at places in counties Dublin and Cork.

Most of the offending took place on unknown dates between 1983 and 1990 but sometime between 1999 and 2000 the man sexually assaulted one of the victims a second time when she was an adult.

The offending took place at the man's family home in Dublin, at another family home in County Cork and later at the man's Dublin home.

The defendant cannot be named to protect the anonymity of the six victims, five of whom were his first cousins and a sixth who was a cousin of a cousin.

Detective Garda Kathy Higgins told Shaun Smyth, prosecuting, the child victims looked up to the defendant as a “cool older cousin” and that teenagers would often hang out in his home and there was drinking. The offending came to light when one of the victims went to gardaí in March 2023.

This woman was aged between nine and 11 when the defendant, who was in his mid 20s, indecently assaulted her in the autumn of 1988.

He had brought the child into his bedroom and told her to lay on the bed where he moved his hands over her body above her clothes as well as under her top.

“I lay frozen, I was an innocent child” she told the court, reading from her victim impact report. She said she felt terrified, confused and disoriented and that these feelings have never left her.

“I was innocent and he shamelessly exploited me,” she said. The accused took her out of the bedroom into a living area in which a number of teenage boys was watching a graphic adult porn video.

The victim said that “young boys were watching a woman getting raped” and she found it “very strange”.

The court heard that this victim met her cousin again 11 years later and stayed over at his Dublin home. During the night she woke up to find him naked in her bed rubbing up against her.

She said she felt this sexual assault was “definitely my fault” and “felt disgusted with myself”.

“I was frozen in the bed just like I was when I was ten years old. I blanked out with fear,” she said.

She said after this attack she felt consumed by guilt but later began to realise that she was still so young as a 21-year-old and that her cousin had taken advantage of that.

She said he “spent years grooming us”. She said as a child she hung around his home with other children, many of them teenagers, but that “there was a strange undertone” to these gatherings.

“It never felt comfortable. It always felt strange,” she said. She said that when his abusive behaviour later emerged it caused “so much pain in our families” and resulted in splits in the family.

One of the victims was aged 13 when the defendant, in his mid-20s, sexually assaulted him by touching his penis.

Another boy was aged 12 in the mid to late 1980s when his cousin made him masturbate him. This abuse escalated to involve oral sex.

The victim said he was never comfortable with the sexual activity and that the defendant plied him with money and gifts.

Another victim said she was aged around nine when her cousin indecently assaulted her while her sister was in the same room. She said he indecently assaulted her a number of times and that he tried “to make it seem normal”.

One victim told gardaí that he froze after the defendant sexually assaulted him when he was aged around 12 years old. When he told his abuser “it wasn't right”, the defendant replied “why can't you have a bit of fun?”.

The man told the court that the defendant told him not to tell anyone about what had happened. “I was ashamed and embarrassed that I let these things happen to me,” he said, adding that he now feels ashamed that he “never had the courage” to tell anyone.

The sixth victim was a teenager in 1990 when the defendant made him give him oral sex and the defendant ejaculated on the child. He said the defendant threatened to tell the victim's parents that he had been drinking and smoking.

The man said he felt ashamed about what had happened and felt he couldn't tell anyone about it. The court heard he, like many of the other victims, went to gardaí after the first victim had made her complaint.

The defendant has three previous convictions for sexual assault of a male from 2002. In April 2005, he was given an 18-month suspended sentence.

In his victim impact statement, one man said he was still trying to make sense of the impact of the abuse and didn't feel strong enough to come to court.

Dt Gda Higgins agreed with Paul Murray, defending, that the remorse expressed by his client was genuine. She also agreed that the defendant dealt with the allegations in “the best possible way”.

Referring to psychological assessment, Mr Murray told the court that his client experienced a number of traumatic events in his childhood as well as early difficulties “with his own sexuality”.

He said his client has been assessed as being at a low risk of reoffending. He asked the court to take into account his client's role in caring for his elderly parents.

Counsel said his client has a very good work history as an engineer and asked the court to take into account that the guilty pleas were entered at “very early” stage.

He said his client knows he is going to prison but asked the court to bear in mind that his client will be going into prison for first time in his life in his mid-60s.

Judge Orla Crowe remanded the defendant into custody to February 23rd next for sentence.

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.