An 82-year-old former scout leader who was jailed two years ago for abusing five young scouts “who still believed in Santa” in the 1970s and early 1980s has failed in his bid to have his sentence reduced.
Jim Harmon had appealed for the severity of the sentence of six years and eight months imposed on him at Ennis Circuit Court in Co Clare in May 2024 for abusing the boys. They were aged between seven and eight when they were preyed upon by Harmon.
Harmon of Pinewood in Shannon, Co Clare, had received a 16-month prison sentence for each of the boys he abused.
The court had heard that the abuse occurred over a period of six years from between 1976 and 1981 in Clare and Limerick. At that time Harmon was in his thirties.
One of the victims had said in his victim impact statement that the former scout leader was “evil.”
He said that the boys were of Holy Communion age and “still believed in Santa.” He added that their lives had been “corrupted by the deviant nature of a predator.”
Another of the victims had described Harmon as a “prolific paedophile” who abused position of trust in order to “repeatedly molest vulnerable young boys.”
Another victim said that, on camping trips, Harmon "told scouts that they weren't allowed to wear underpants under their pyjamas".
Judge Francis Commerford had noted that one of the abused boys who was from Limerick had told his mother about the abuse by Harmon in 1981. She told local scouring authorities and Harmon was dismissed from his role in 1982.
The judge said that “it didn’t go any further” and Gardaí were not notified.
Judge Comerford added that a complaint by one of the men to gardaí in 1996 "went nowhere" while the DPP recommended that no prosecution take place against Harmon concerning a complaint by the same person in 2014. The DPP made the same direction concerning a separate complaint by another victim in 2016.
It was only after Scouting Ireland had set up a helpline for those abused by adults in the organisation that another man came forward to make a complaint against Harmon. The judge added that the older complaints were reviewed.
An appeal on the grounds of severity of sentence was heard on Tuesday in Cork by presiding judge, Justice Patrick McCarthy with Justice Nuala Butler and Justice Anthony Michael Collins.
Justice McCarthy said that Harmon had abused the boys when they were in his care in tents. He described what had occurred as a “gross breach of trust.”
He said that the presiding judge had engaged fully with the evidence in the case and had taken on board the evidence of the remorse of Harmon “in so far as it existed.”
Justice McCarthy said that Judge Comerford had also considered the age of the accused and the fact that the offences occurred 40 years ago.
He said that the judge had factored the guilty plea in to his sentence and that proportionality had been achieved.
The judges on the Court of Appeal also agreed that that the sentencing judge had “in substance” considered the principle of totality.
The appeal was dismissed with the three judges ruling that there was no error in sentencing.
