70-year-old man sentenced to six years for sexual assault

This report is a localnews.ie summary based on public court reporting and records; sources are listed below.

A 70-year-old man was sentenced to six years in prison for sexually assaulting an 11-year-old autistic boy at the Circuit Criminal Court in Castlebar on 15 February 2017. The boy was in a west of Ireland town when the man offered him €25 to enter a laneway, where the assault occurred. The defendant, who cannot be named for legal reasons, had previous convictions for sexual offences in the UK. Judge Rory MacCabe described him as “predatory” and “dangerous”, saying children were unsafe in his presence. Time already spent in custody was to count towards the sentence.

This case may have concluded differently. The outcome has not yet been confirmed by a public source we could find.