A 69-year-old Co Clare man who sexually abused three granddaughters was given a three-year jail sentence by Mr Justice Paul Butler at the Central Criminal Court in Dublin yesterday.
The widower, who cannot be named for legal reasons, pleaded guilty in June 2004 to 10 charges of sexual assault in relation to the three victims on dates from 1989 to 1999. The victims were aged variously nine to 15 years, six to 13 years and seven to eight years when abused.
Garda Deborah Marsh told Mary Ellen Ring SC (with John Coughlan BL) that two days after being questioned by gardaí the man attempted suicide by taking an overdose and throwing himself into a river.
He was then taken into psychiatric care. He had no previous convictions.
Mr Justice Butler said that in his view the five years' maximum sentence under the legislation was too low for what he called the most serious sexual abuse of young children by a person in a position of trust.
He would normally be reluctant not to take the advice offered in the reports before him, but he believed that such offenders must know they were going to be jailed, "except in very exceptional circumstances."
He suspended the final two years of the sentence on condition that the man continued with therapy and also followed the directions of the Probation Service.