Long awaited justice was delivered to two men who were victims of sexual assault for much of their childhood at the hands of an older man.
A former Gaelic football coach and farmer from Sligo has been jailed for seven years for a series of indecent assaults that were carried out on two young boys in the 1970’s.
75 year old Ronan McCormack systematically groomed and abused schoolboys as young as ten years old in the 1970’s and 1980’s.
Earlier this year, a jury convicted him of 14 counts of indecently assaulting two boys who were aged between seven and 13 at the time. The men came forward in 2014 after learning that McCormack had gone on to abuse other boys.
The father of three from Cloonloo, Co. Sligo had pleaded not guilty to 26 counts of indecent assault of one boy on various occasions and at various locations between June 1972 and March 1975.
He also denied three counts of indecently assaulting a second boy on dates between August 1972 and December 1973.
At Dublin Circuit Criminal Court today, Judge Martin Nolan said that by his own conservative estimate, McCormack had abused one of the victims in this case between 60 and 100 times.
The abuse took place in the child's family home, in the passenger seat of his car and in a local cinema. The victim described the abuse as “a ritual”.
Reading his victim impact statement, the first victim told the court that he was eleven when the abuse began. He said the abuse affected his grades in school and “may have prevented me from reaching my full potential”.
It caused him to later become confused about his sexual orientation, which he found distressful. He said the abuse left him feeling soiled and like “damaged goods”.
He later suffered years of depression and missed career and relationship opportunities. He said he still suffers nightmares about the abuse and often wakes up with a strong smell of his abuser's body odor.
The man said that for a long time he unfairly blamed his parents, but they were unaware and had been hoodwinked and manipulated by McCormack.
He said his own inaction in reporting McCormack “will prey on my mind for some time”.
“He has never offered an apology or shown any remorse,” the man said.
In August 1972, McCormack began abusing a second boy, who was known to the first victim. He molested this victim on three occasions.
In his statement, this man said that the abuse had left him with a lasting sense of insecurity. He said he feels extremely distrustful of people and of friendship because he believes people might have ulterior motives.
The court heard that at one point years after the abuse, the first man had gone to McCormack’s home to confront him about the abuse. He changed his mind after seeing a child’s swing which made him think that McCormack had moved on.
Judge Nolan imposed various sentences of two years and one year on five specific counts and ordered that the sentences run consecutively, giving a total prison sentence of seven years. He said he was taking all remaining counts into consideration and sentencing globally.
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