Former GAA coach has jail sentence for indecently assaulting schoolboys cut on appeal

A former Gaelic football coach from Cloonloo, County Sligo, has had his prison sentence reduced on appeal following convictions for indecent assaults on young boys. Ronan McCormack, aged 75, was found guilty by jury at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court of 14 counts of indecently assaulting two boys aged between seven and 13 at various locations between June 1972 and March 1975. He had previously received a five-year-and-ten-month sentence in 2014 for separate offences committed in the 1980s. The Circuit Court judge imposed a seven-year consecutive sentence for the earlier offences. The Court of Appeal, sitting today, determined that the aggregate sentence across both sets of convictions was excessive and disproportionate. The three-judge court reduced the sentence for the present offences from seven to four years, finding this more compatible with sentencing principles and taking account of McCormack's age and health.