Thomas Moran sentenced for indecent assault of sisters

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

Thomas Moran was sentenced by Mr Justice Robert Eager to three years’ imprisonment, with the final 12 months suspended. The proceedings were reported on 15 November 2016.

A jury at the Central Criminal Court convicted him in March 2016 of 13 counts of indecently assaulting his sister Roisin Moran between January 1981 and June 1984. She was eight when the abuse began.

Following that trial, Moran pleaded guilty to seven charges of indecently assaulting another sister, Dolores McIntyre. Those offences occurred between April 1980 and September 1983, when she was aged between 12 and 15.

Moran was aged between 16 and 19 during the offending. The judge noted that he was himself a child during some of it and was “utterly ill-equipped” to fill his father’s shoes after his death. He accepted Moran was extremely unlikely to reoffend. The court heard Moran had not come to adverse Garda attention over the following 30 years.

Mr Justice Robert Eager paid tribute to both sisters’ “determination and bravery” in reporting the abuse. He separately praised Roisin Moran’s courage in giving evidence against her brother in the face of his denial.