Suspended sentence for paedophile who abused boy (7)

Insults and accusations were traded on the steps of Galway Courthouse between the family of a convicted paedophile and his victim after a suspended sentence was imposed on the perpetrator moments earlier inside.

Mervue native, Anthony Spellman (50), formerly of 2 McHugh Avenue, Mervue, who now lives in Cheshire, England, pleaded guilty moments before his trial was due to begin before a jury at Galway Circuit Criminal Court last November to four sample counts of indecently assaulting a then seven-year-old boy at No. 2, McHugh Avenue and also at Misco’s Gym, Glenrock Business Park, Ballybane, on dates unknown between January 1, 1985 and January 31, 1986.

Sentence was adjourned to this week for the preparation of reports.

The plea to the four charges was accepted by the DPP on the basis that facts in a further thirteen similar charges were admitted.

The victim told the sentence hearing Spellman, who was 19 years old at the time he committed the attacks, took every opportunity to abuse him every day during the year-long ordeal.

He had threatened the boy he would cut his parents’ throats if he told anyone about the abuse, which occurred in Spellman’s own bedroom at McHugh Avenue, in his parent’s garden shed and at a neighbourhood gym.

Garda Evelyn Barrett, who investigated the matter, read a impact statement written by the victim who was present in court.

In it, the now 39-year-old man said he had lost all faith in himself while growing up and had turned to drink and drugs in order to cope with the anger and hurt he felt down through the years.

“I remember making my First Holy Communion and feeling anger, disgust and hatred because of him.

“I wanted to tell my parents but his words haunted me.  I was waking up with nightmares and I still do,” the man said in his statement.

He said his mother died from cancer when he was 14 and his father died from a heart attack in front of him on Christmas morning when he was 18.

“My world caved in and I went off the rails on drink, drugs and all the things I shouldn’t have done.  I was carrying a lot of hatred and guilt inside of me because of him and what he had done to me and that is some burden to carry.

“All my life I was angry at myself because of you,” the victim said to Spellman.

He said he had waited all his life for this day in court when he could tell the court and judge about the horrific impact the accused had on his life.

“Since the age of between six and seven you robbed me of my childhood because of your attacks and you made my life a living hell. I was afraid to tell anyone, not alone because of your threats, but also because you made me feel ashamed of myself because of what you did to me when I was a child.

“But it is you who should carry this shame and not me.  I’m relieved to be able to say that now after all these years of torment.

“I hope I can reach out to others who are suffering just like me and hope they also come forward and report the likes of you to the Gardai.

“I hope I can reach those in despair and given them some hope and encouragement to come forward,” he said.

The man thanked Det. Barrett and her colleagues for their hard work in bringing Spellman to justice.

He said his counsellor was an angel who didn’t realise how much she had helped him cope.

Det. Barrett said the abuse stopped when Spellman went to live in the UK in 1986.

He was a warehouse operative in Cheshire, had married but that ended after 18 years and he had a new partner now.

Spellman, she said, had been the subject of a Crown Prosecution Supervision Order in the UK and while there had been no prosecution, he had been deemed a risk of causing sexual harm to male children.

That order was in place from November 2008 to November 2014 and he was ordered not to approach any male child under the age of 16 or have any contact with a male child unless that child was accompanied by a guardian.

Bernard Madden SC, defending, said his client had pleaded guilty, albeit at a late stage, and had to be given credit for that as it had spared the victim the trauma of having to give evidence at a trial and be cross-examined.

He said the offences were also historical and the charge of indecent assault going back to thirty years ago, carried a maximum sentence of two years in prison.

Mr Madden handed a letter written by Spellman into court in which he expressed remorse for any physical or psychological damage he had caused to his victim over the years.

“I was little more than a child myself at the time and didn’t realise the damage I was causing.  I know now and I’m apologising to him and my family,” Spellman said in the letter which Mr Madden read to the court.

“Go away from me,” the victim shouted from the back of the courtroom while shaking his head in disbelief.

Mr Madden said the supervision order imposed on his client in the UK had expired in 2014 and he had not infringed that order.

“His family are aware of the offences and it’s a cause of distress to them,” Mr Madden added.

Judge Rory McCabe said the fact the offences went back thirty years did not minimise the impact they had on the victim.

Given the maximum sentence for each offence was two years, Judge McCabe said the headline sentence for these offences, before mitigating and aggravating circumstances were taken into consideration, was 18 months each.

He placed the offending behaviour in the high mid-range on the scale of gravity and said the mitigating factors that had to be taken into consideration were that the accused had no previous convictions, had pleaded guilty and had “demons” of his own, while also stating in the letter handed into court that he had to care for a relative with special needs.

He said the accused had also shown insight and awareness of the impact the abuse had on the victim and had expressed remorse.

The judge noted the probation service had assessed Spellman as posing a medium risk of reoffending.

He said the accused now lived in England and it would be logistically impossible to impose a period of probation supervision on him.

That, he said, left two options: a custodial sentence or a suspended sentence.

The judge said that in the interests of justice a suspended sentence would be appropriate if Spellman gave an undertaking not to return to this jurisdiction.

Mr Madden said his client would give that undertaking.

The judge then sentenced him to 14 months in prison for each charge, to run consecutively, bringing the total sentence to 56 months.

He then suspended the sentence for five year on condition Spellman undertake not to return to this jurisdiction, be of good behaviour and not reoffend for the next five years.

Spellman gave that undertaking in court and was automatically placed on the Sex Offender’s Register.

Moments later, the victim and members of Spellman’s family converged on the steps of the Courthouse.

They traded insults for a few minutes before several Garda intervened to separate them.