A Galway paedophile was sentenced to nine years in prison yesterday for the buggery and indecent assault of four boys over a 12-year period.
Sentencing the accused man at Galway Circuit Court, Judge Carroll Moran said it was the worst case of sexual abuse he had ever heard.
Patrick Flaherty (46), Monivea Road, Ballybrit, Galway, who has a previous conviction for sexual assault, pleaded guilty to 15 sample counts of buggery, attempted buggery and indecent assault, in court on Wednesday.
Passing sentence, Judge Moran said: "For 12 years the accused buggered and indecently assaulted four boys, who varied in age from seven to 12."
The judge said he believed Flaherty was still engaging in deviant behaviour, as borne out by his conviction last September on two counts of indecent assault on other boys.
The offences involving the four victims occurred between 1977 and 1989. The boys were buggered and indecently assaulted in a derelict house, in fields, in a hen house and in Flaherty's own home, after being lured to those locations.
Flaherty told gardai when arrested that he began abusing boys after viewing a homosexual blue movie when he was 17.
The victims, aged between seven and eight when first abused, said he had robbed them of their childhoods. "My heart used to stop with fear and terror when I would see him," one of the victims said. "I decided to report him because I'm determined he will not do it to anyone else."
All of the victims wanted their attacker named so others who may have been abused by him would come forward.
The abuse stopped when the boys grew older and were able to run away or avoid the accused man.
Det Garda Michael Kelleher said he believed Flaherty was still an active paedophile.
Judge Moran further sentenced him to four years in prison on each of the remaining charges, to run concurrent with the nine-year sentence, and refused leave to appeal severity.