Courts / Cavan / Report
Suspended sentence for farm labourer (86) who raped and abused children over 60 years ago
Summary
An 86-year-old man from Arva, County Cavan, has received an eight-year suspended sentence at the Central Criminal Court for the sexual abuse of two siblings spanning the period 1958 to 1963. John Joe Kiernan pleaded guilty to eleven sample counts of indecent assault and one count of rape. The offences occurred on or near the victims' family farmland where Kiernan worked as a farm labourer. Mr Justice Michael White imposed sentences totalling eight years for rape and seven years for indecent assaults, suspending all sentences entirely on condition that Kiernan keep the peace. The judge cited Kiernan's advanced age and serious ill-health as factors against imposing custody. The court heard the victims, now in their sixties, came forward in 2017. Kiernan had previously served a five-year sentence in 2005 for separate sexual offences committed between 1963 and 1973.
Who, what, where, when and why
What: Report matter: Suspended sentence for farm labourer (86) who raped and abused children over 60 years ago. Charges or matters: 11 sample counts of indecent assault and one count of rape between 1958 and 1963. Procedural stage: sentence
When:
- 1958 and 1963 Incident
- 1963 and 1973 Other
- 2018-10-22 Publication
Why: On one occasion she was out in a field with her father and Kiernan and her father told Kiernan to take her inside because it was freezing cold. CNI source report
Case subjects
Defendant
Charges: 11 sample counts of indecent assault and one count of rape between 1958 and 1963 (Admitted)
Plea: Guilty
Outcome: Mr Justice Michael White said that if Kiernan were a younger man the court would have imposed a serious custodial sentence but, given his age and ill health, he did not think it was appropriate to jail him. He noted that Kiernan has also already served a five-year sentence imposed in 2005 for sexual and indecent assaults, carried out between 1963 and 1973 against three boys and one girl and is alienated from his own children.
Places mentioned
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