A CONNEMARA butcher was convicted by a jury yesterday of the sexual abuse of a child in his butcher shop during the 1970s.
Dominic Downey (64), of Ugool, Moycullen, was remanded in custody for sentence on December 8th next.
Downey had denied six sample charges of indecently assaulting the girl on various dates between July 1st, 1973, and July 22nd, 1975, at his butcher’s shop on the Spiddal Road, Moycullen, during his three-day trial at Galway Circuit Criminal Court this week.
The victim told the jury of seven men and five women that Moycullen had been just a quiet rural village at the time, without many people or cars passing by. Downey, she said, would always go to the door of the shop and scan the road outside to see whether anyone was around before he abused her.
She said she recalled how he used to hook his leg around her and grab her firmly during the attacks. She would go numb and her legs would turn to jelly. The abuse continued for three to four years until she was 15, and had progressed from groping to rape which, she said, took place up against animal carcasses in the shop’s cold room.
The woman was close to tears as she said she was an innocent child of 12 and knew nothing about sex when the abuse started. She said Downey would appear on the point of anger before abusing her.
She said he would fix her with a certain one-eyed type of stare and she would feel powerless to react or scream. “At all times he was sour and gruff and would speak very little to me, and I would feel more afraid,” she told the jury.
Downey admitted to gardaí when questioned in 2008 that he had kissed and touched the girl, but denied going any further.
He claimed she had thrown herself at him, was very forward for her age, and looked older than she was. “I don’t think I took advantage of her. She came on to me. It’s not my fault,” he told gardaí.
The jury took just 3½ hours to find him guilty of three of the charges, and not guilty of the remaining three. Judge Raymond Groarke remanded Downey in custody to appear before the court on December 8th for sentence, and directed a victim impact statement be made available to the court on that date.