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Connemara man sentenced over sexual abuse of schoolboy
Galway Bay fm newsroom – A 58-year-old Connemara man has been sentenced to six years in prison for the sexual abuse of a schoolboy over a four-year period during the 1970’s.
James Kelly, a native of Cashel, in Connemara, who has lived in Galway city since 1981, and now resides at 22 Beal Srutha, Ballybane, Galway appeared for sentencing before Galway Circuit Criminal Court.
Kelly had denied sixteen charges of indecently assaulting the boy at several locations, on dates between January 1976 and December, 1979, during a three-day trial at Galway Circuit Criminal Court last December.
Sentencing was then adjourned to this week for the preparation of reports.
In an impact report read to the court by Detective Garda Michael O Grioffa, the victim said the abuse had sent him on a very destructive course through life.
Judge Rory McCabe sentenced Kelly to two years on each of the first fourteen counts, to run concurrently and he then imposed two, consecutive two-year sentences on the remaining two counts, bringing the total to be served to six years.
The sentence was backdated to last December when Kelly was remanded in custody following the jury’s guilty verdict.