'Misconduct in public office': abuser not charged for 26 years after making 'wholesale' admissions

Thomas Collins, aged 59, of The Fair Green, Frenchpark, County Roscommon, has been sentenced to eleven and a half years imprisonment at the Central Criminal Court for the sexual abuse of three cousins between 1978 and 1992. Collins pleaded guilty to 21 sample counts including indecent assault, attempted rape, and rape. Justice Mary Ellen Ring noted the case should have been resolved decades earlier. The court heard that two complainants withdrew statements in 1997 after a serving garda discouraged them from proceeding; the Director of Public Prosecutions subsequently declined to prosecute in 2002 despite Collins making wholesale admissions to gardaí. Justice Ring stated the garda's conduct had hallmarks of misconduct in public office. Collins was charged only in 2023. The three complainants attended sentencing and delivered victim impact statements describing lasting trauma. Collins is currently serving a separate nine-and-a-half-year sentence for abusing another person.