Pensioner jailed for rape and abuse of young girls
An 84-year-old man who raped and sexually assaulted five young girls was today sentenced to five years in jail.
Jack Fahy, from Eighterard, Oughterard, County Galway, had warned his victims that no-one would believe their allegations due to his standing in the community as a former mayor.
At the Central Criminal Court today, Judge Paul Carney said Fahy had perpetrated appalling outrages on the girls between 1981 and 1992.
He sentenced him to nine years imprisonment for the counts of rape and suspended the final four years to take account of his frail health and the disgrace he had suffered in the community.
He imposed a sentence of four years to run concurrently for the remaining counts of sexual assault.
Fahy, dressed in a beige jacket and wearing thick-rimmed glasses, cupped his hands to his ear throughout the sentencing in an effort to hear the judge’s comments.
He pleaded guilty to the charges in advance of the trial but sentencing was adjourned yesterday to allow lawyers for the prosecution to consider the precedence for sentencing such an elderly person.
Judge Carney said he derived from the previous cases, which included an 84-year-old man who was sentenced to three years in prison for sexual abuse in 2000, that Fahy’s age did not prevent him from imposing a substantial term of imprisonment.
The court heard that Fahy was a single man who lives on his own and had never had a full relationship with a woman.
The 84-year-old, who carried a walking stick with him in court, retired from working at Faherty’s mineral water factory in 1986 and had a keen interest in nature and photography.
Fahy had served as Mayor of Oughterard and was also a member of a number of community organisations.
He carried out the rapes and sexual assault on his young victims at his home and in their homes.
He regularly gave the children 20 pence pieces and sweets after he abused them.
In relation to one 10-year-old victim, he told gardai that she had brought it upon herself.
Senior counsel Patrick J McCarthy, prosecuting, asked superintendent Michael Curley if Fahy’s high standing in the community had made it more difficult for the victims to gain acceptance for their allegations.
Superintendent Curley said that was correct and added that Fahy had visited the victims a number of times to threaten them that they would not be believed after he learned of the garda investigation into his conduct.
However in his final garda interview in February 2002, he said he wanted to deeply apologise to the women. “My whole world is turned upside down. I am deeply sorry. I never thought I was the offensive type,” he said.
Lawyers for Fahy said he was suffering from Pulmonary TB, vertigo and severe respiratory difficulties and that there was no danger of him re-offending.
They requested Judge Carney to impose a suspended sentence. However Mr McCarthy said that the precedents were such that a custodial sentence should be imposed.
Judge Carney said he was taking account of the extensive victim impact reports he had received. “They show an enormous and continuous suffering on the parts of his victims,” he said.
However he said the reports had posed difficulties because one of the victims had threatened to discourage other victims from going through the court process if the verdict was to her disapproval.
Judge Carney said he had disregarded this because it was outside the woman’s powers. He also said he had to disregard a claim from the victims which he described as a grey area – the claim that Fahy would be given special treatment on account of his age when the ages of the victims at the time of the offence would not be given such consideration.
After imposing his sentence he refused Fahy leave to appeal and said that there was no point in imposing conditions for post-release supervision.
“The reality of this case is that any sentence of significance is, in effect, going to be a life sentence in regard to his frailty and age,” he said.
