A JUDGE yesterday said that he would not send a man to jail for sexually assaulting a young girl on a beach because of the man’s medical condition.
The 62-year-old Wicklow man, who also has previous convictions for rape and attempted murder dating back 27 years, was given a seven-and-a-half year sentence, suspended in full for 10 years on condition he only leaves his accommodation for several hours each day. The man, who suffers from a life-threatening illness, cannot be named to protect the identity of his victim.
He had pleaded not guilty at the Circuit Criminal Court to sexually assaulting the girl on a Wicklow beach on September 21st, 2005 and was convicted by a jury in February of this year.
Judge Tony Hunt had previously received a report from the Irish Prison Service stating they could not provide the advanced medical care the man would require in jail. He noted that among other factors, the medication the man would have to take could make him the target of other prisoners seeking to steal it.
He also noted that he could not be properly medically monitored in prison and would not receive the specific type of nutrition he requires.
“I’m not simply letting him walk out of here with a suspended sentence,” Judge Hunt said. “I intend his home to be some sort of substitute for prison.”
The court was told the man was currently living in a hotel in Dublin paid for by the Health Service Executive and has to leave the hotel every day to collect money from them to pay for the hotel. The judge allowed him to leave the hotel between 9.30am and 2.00pm to do this.
Judge Hunt said because of his medical condition, a prison term would effectively amount to a capital sentence.
At a previous hearing, Judge Hunt asked that inquiries be made about having the man electronically tagged instead of prison but was told that there is no scheme in place at the moment for this. Prior to the assault the man had volunteered to take the girl to school and on the third day of this arrangement he instead took her to the beach. A professor, who was out jogging, saw the pair and said that there was “absolutely no doubt” that he had witnessed a serious sexual assault on a child.
The now 14-year-old complainant said during her evidence that she could not remember what happened on the beach. She said this was because she was trying “to get rid of what happened to me”.