Predatory paedophile gets five years

A PREDATORY paedophile who went all over Cork city to carry out sex attacks on children as young as four years of age in the toilets of fast food outlets, public swimming pools and playing fields, was jailed for five years yesterday.

Judge Seán Ó Donnabháin imposed a sentence of seven years with the last two years suspended and ordered that James Lombard, 37, from the Blarney Street/Sunday's Well area of Cork, be put on the Sex Offenders' Register.

The sentence covered seven sex assaults on which he was found guilty by a jury and nine counts to which he pleaded guilty.

Two of the victims were girls, 14 were boys, all aged between four and 10 years when the assaults occurred in 1993 and 1994.

Judge Ó Donnabháin said: "You went the length and breadth of this city preying on and taking advantage of young children where you could."

He imposed concurrent two-year sentences on the charges to which Lombard pleaded guilty but he imposed heavier penalties on the charges on which a jury convicted him.

The seven-year sentence consisted of consecutive three and four-year sentences.

After asking to take the witness box yesterday, Mr Lombard told his victims that he deeply regretted what he had done.

"I would just like to say I am sorry it took all this time for the evidence to come together My father and mother have been very supportive ... I am very suicidal. I am being left in a padded cell at the moment. I am suffering from depression as well," Lombard said.

The judge was concerned about the conclusion of a psychiatric report that there was a risk of reoffending.

Judge Ó Donnabháin put this in the context of the probation report finding that Lombard had a lack of empathy for his victims.