Irish ex-doctor gets 12 years for sexual assault of children

A former Irish doctor has been sentenced to 12 years in prison in the US after pleading guilty to sexually assaulting two young girls.

Rory Doyle committed the offences in Florida against the girls between September 1994 and July 2000 when they were aged 13 and eight years.

The 59-year-old, with addresses at Donnybrook Manor, Belmont Avenue, Donnybrook, Dublin, and Sallins Bridge, Sallins, Co Kildare, had been on the run for 12 years.

He fled the US in 2001 on the eve of his initial trial and was found in Dublin in 2009 where he had been practising in cosmetic surgery under the name of David West, which he had changed by deed poll.

His discovery followed an investigation by the Medical Council which subsequently struck him off the medical register.

In January 2010, the High Court ordered that Doyle be surrendered to Florida on an extradition warrant to face the charges against him. He appealed the case and was on bail subject to conditions requiring him to surrender his passport, reside in Donnybrook, enter into his own bond of €25,000 and provide a surety of €100,000. The surety was put up by his mother Maura Doyle, then 89 years old, with whom he lived in Donnybrook.

He was due before the Supreme Court in February 2012, but in December 2011 he was granted the return of his passport to allow him go to England with his mother for a week at Christmas. He was excused from signing on from December 21st to 29th.

However, Mrs Doyle spent the holidays in a Cork hotel. When she returned home, her son was gone and when he had not returned by January 2nd, she phoned Donnybrook Garda station.

She was assured the matter would be followed up, but gardaí did not visit her home until January 27th and a warrant was then issued for her son’s arrest. Mrs Doyle lost her €100,000 surety.

At the High Court, Mr Justice Michael Peart criticised gardaí, describing what had happened as "a mockery of the process by which bail is applied for and granted".

Doyle was arrested in Tangiers in November 2012 and subsequently extradited to the US by Moroccan authorities.

Though he had consistently maintained his innocence throughout the process, Doyle, who has two teenage children, changed his plea last week. He received a 12-year sentence for the assaults and a concurrent five-year sentence for failing to turn up for the trial.

It is likely he would have been given half that sentence if he had not fled and remained a fugitive, the Pinellas County State’s Attorney office said.