A child abuser facing sentence for molesting his five-year-old nephew has fled before he could be sentenced. The 51-year-old faced up to 10 years in prison when he was due to be sentenced yesterday at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court.
He had pleaded guilty to indecent assault at the child’s home in 1983. However he failed to appear for sentencing and Judge Martin Nolan issued a bench warrant for his arrest.
James Dwyer, defending, said his client had a serious drinking problem and this was the likely cause of his absence. Judge Nolan replied he did not think the accused “was capable of fleeing very far, if I’m any judge of character”.
Earlier this week Garda Avril Doyle told Melanie Greally prosecuting that in the 1980s the man sometimes baby-sat for his sister. Once he brought his five-year-old nephew into the bathroom and blocked the door. He then made the child perform oral sex. The child told his mother about it straight away but the uncle denied it.
The victim repressed the memory until it came up in a counselling session last year causing him to make a complaint to gardaí. The uncle was arrested and blamed the incident on his alcohol problem.