Terminally ill man and trainee priest brother jailed for rape of young cousin

Two brothers have been sentenced to a combined seven years imprisonment following their conviction for the sexual abuse of their cousin over a four-year period in the late 1990s and early 2000s. Aidan Gallagher, aged 40, of Westport, County Mayo, received five years with two years post-release supervision after being convicted of six counts of oral rape committed between 1998 and 2003 in sheds near their homes. Thomas Gallagher, aged 38, of County Galway, was sentenced to two years imprisonment after conviction on one rape charge and seven counts of sexual assault at the family's former home in County Leitrim between 1999 and 2003. Mr Justice David Keane reduced Thomas Gallagher's sentence citing his diagnosis with Motor Neuron disease in October 2022 and life expectancy of less than two years, whilst noting that serious offences ordinarily warrant custodial sentences. Both men had denied the allegations. The Central Criminal Court jury, sitting in Carrick-on-Shannon, convicted them in May 2023. The complainant waived anonymity to permit identification of her cousins.