A judge has ordered the sale of a convicted paedophile’s home in order to raise funds to pay €100,000 damages to a man he sexually abused.
Judge Jacqueline Linnane said she was satisfied that John O’Neill had waited long enough to repay Keith Battersby, his nephew, the damages he was ordered to pay him four years ago.
Judge Linnane last year heard that O’Neill (51), an unemployed law student, had been paying Mr Battersby €50 a week.
Barrister Cathy Smith, for Mr Battersby, told the court that Mr O’Neill had “sporadically and irregularly” making the €50 weekly payment over the last four years with just €6,630 paid off the debt.
She said Mr Battersby was seeking a well charging order against O’Neill’s home at 86 Sarsfield Park, Lucan, and, if necessary, orders for possession and the sale of it.
In 2012, Mr Battersby, of Coill Fada, Longwood, Co Meath, sued his uncle who, he said, had committed 12 sexual assaults on him between 1982 and 1984. The abuse occurred in O’Neill’s home and in the projection room of the Grove Cinema in Lucan where O’Neill worked at the time. The abuse started when Mr Battersby was six years old.
The then High Court President, Mr Justice Nicholas Kearns, awarded him €100,000 and costs for his “horrific experiences.”
Ms Smith said Mr Battersby wanted payment of the award so he could finally get on with his life.
Guilty plea
O’Neill, who represented himself in the Circuit Civil Court, said he had pleaded guilty at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court to sexually assaulting his nephew. He had been given a two year suspended sentence and had not defended the claim for damages.
Following his conviction and articles about him in the media he lost his job in a taxi call centre and had since been on social welfare. He was doing his best to pay off his nephew but did not want to lose his home.
O’Neill said he had been a law student for the last four years and hoped, when qualified, to get a job and pay off his debt.
Last year, Judge Linnane said that with a judgment already against him his credit rating had gone and it was “fanciful” of him to think that in the future a bank would lend him the money to pay off the debt.
She said said that at the rate of €50 a week, it would take him almost 40 years paying off the debt. By that time O’Neill would be 91 and his nephew 80 if both survived. “And I certainly won’t be around,” the judge said.
On Thursday Judge Linnane said she was satisfied the court had jurisdiction to deal with the matter and she made an order directing the sale of O’Neill’s house.
Refusing an application by O’Neill to allow a six-months stay on the order, until September, Judge Linnane said a court ordered sale would not be concluded by that time anyway.