A former credit union official from Tuam, Co Galway, was sentenced to five years in prison yesterday for the sexual abuse of a 13-year-old schoolboy in the town almost 30 years ago.
John "Flash" Flaherty (56), from Lavally, Tuam, Co Galway, had denied four charges of indecently assaulting the schoolboy on various dates between 1974 and 1975 in an upstairs office at a credit union building in Tuam, during a two-day trial before Galway Circuit Criminal Court last November.
He also denied a fifth charge of indecently assaulting the boy near sand hills outside the town on an unknown date in 1976.
Sentencing had been adjourned until yesterday to await the findings of a victim impact report.
Judge Harvey Kenny said the accused had adopted a predatory attitude by hanging around public toilets and a youth club in the town. He had lured his victim into an office by showing him "dirty" magazines and had then sexually abused him.
"This went on for three years and had a very serious effect on the young boy who was only 12 or 13 at the time. His self-esteem was destroyed and his secondary school education was suspended," the judge said.
The complainant, who is now 43, broke down in the witness box when giving evidence at the trial as he recalled how he had blotted the abuse from his mind for 30 years and had turned to drink, attempted suicide and got into trouble with the law.
The victim said Flaherty had initially approached him in a public toilet at a snooker hall, when he was in first year in secondary school, and given him pornographic magazines to look at. He later invited him into the credit union office.
On one occasion Flaherty gave him pornographic magazines to bring home but his mother found them and threw them out. On another occasion, as Flaherty was about to bring him upstairs, a customer came into the office and Flaherty told him to kneel on the floor inside the counter so that he could not be seen.
The victim said he began to drink when he was 13 and got into trouble at home, at school and with the Garda. He ran away from home on numerous occasions. He eventually fled to England to avoid the abuse where he worked as a painter and decorator. He built up a successful business, employing three others, and got married but the marriage failed.
Mr Martin Giblin SC, defending, said his client claimed he had been sexually abused himself as a child and suffered from low self esteem. His health has deteriorated in recent years and he is awaiting minor surgery.
Judge Kenny said it was up to the prison authorities to make the appropriate medical arrangements. Leave to appeal was refused.