Paedophile should remain on register for life, says group

IT was wrong to limit the time a convicted paedophile’s details should remain on the sex offender’s register, a leading child protection group said yesterday.

The Children at Risk in Ireland said people like Patrick Collins, a serial sex abuser and member of a paedophile ring in the Cobh area of Co Cork, should remain on the register for life.

Collins, aged 58, of Belmont Place, Cobh, is currently serving 10 years for the buggery of four boys.

Yesterday, another six months was added to his sentence by Judge Sean O’Donnabhain at Cork Circuit Court for sexually assaulting a seven-year-old on two occasions in or around 1993. All of Collins’s sexual crimes were committed between the 1970s to the 1990s.

His personal details will be also placed on a sex offenders’ list for 10 years.

CARI’s national clinical director, Eileen Prendiville, wants to know why the man’s details should be removed from the register after a 10-year post-release period.

She said such a move does not makes sense to her, especially when the man had sexually abused five boys.

“I don’t know why he is not on the register for life. There is nothing to suggest that he is going to cease being a danger to other children,” she said.

Ms Prendiville said the six-month sentence for the double sexual assault on the seven-year-old boy did not match the seriousness of the crime. Even though the man’s guilty plea had been taken into account, a much harsher sentence should have been handed down to fit the crime, she added.

“Even the ten-year sentence for the buggery of four boys was not an awful lot either,” she said.

However, she welcomed the news that the new six-month jail term was to be added to the man’s original sentence: “I think it is wrong to have concurrent sentences for crimes against different victims, because they are not the same crime.”

Ms Prendiville stressed that concurrent sentences should only apply to crimes against the same person.

She also questioned why the boy in the recent case, now 18 years old and studying in England, believed justice had been done. The boy’s father had told the judge that his son was getting on a bit better with his life, but had a bad time with male teachers in school.

“It’s very hard to tell how the victim feels now, but sentencing should act as a deterrent. Not only should justice be done, it must be seen to be done.”

She said there was a danger of the public not realising how grievous were the crimes being committed.

“They are unimaginable crimes to some extent and people don’t necessarily appreciate how severe the impact can be on a young person,” she said. “They are violent crimes even though additional violence is not used in the assault. Sometimes the system doesn’t fully appreciate how grievous the crime is.”