West Cork paedophile gets 20-year sentence

THE West Cork man who sexually abused at least 15 children — some when they were as young as two years old — was given a 20-year jail sentence yesterday with the last seven years suspended.

Kevin Scully, aged 26, of Glounaphuca, Caharagh, Drimoleague, Co Cork, has been in custody since May 2003, much of that at the Central Mental Hospital (CMH) and Judge Patrick J Moran backdated the sentence to that date. Taking into consideration the backdating of the sentence, the suspended period and the one quarter remission of sentence that can be given by the prison authorities, Scully could be released from jail as early as the beginning of 2013.

When he is released, he will be under the supervision of the probation service for a period of 10 years.

A condition of the suspended period of the sentence requires him not to live in West Cork. Defence senior counsel Marjorie Farrelly said yesterday at Cork Circuit Criminal Court Scully did not intend to return to the area.

Detective Garda Bar O’Leary who investigated the case indicated that the victims and their families did not want to see Scully return to the area.

Looking at the spectrum of sexual offences, Judge Moran said Scully’s crimes were at a high point, being of a very serious nature. The judge noted from a report of Dr Harry Kennedy, clinical director at CMH, that Scully made no expression of remorse, empathy with the victims or sense of guilt and had displayed a negative attitude to treatment. Judge Moran noted there was a divergence of views on the defendant’s psychiatric condition, a jury originally finding him unfit to plead, but a later view expressed by psychiatrists that he had no mental illness.

Scully wrote a letter to his victims and their families. According to Ms Farrelly, it expressed his sorrow and regret about what he had done to the victims and their parents. “He thinks about it day and night and is disgusted and ashamed about his behaviour and he says that it will haunt him.”

The senior counsel acknowledged the serious effect of such crimes on the victims, she added that Scully’s offending behaviour had effectively ruined his own life.

Conflicting accounts also emerged yesterday about two years the defendant spent in Glebe House, Cambridge, England, for treatment for his sexual propensity. Ms Farrelly said the defendant felt he benefited, but psychiatric reports stated that he had not benefited from treatment.

Detective Garda Bart O’Leary previously outlined the background to the case. Several of the children described being in fear of Scully. The defendant told some children he would kill them if they told their parents. In relation to that, Ms Farrelly said Scully was not charged with making such threats.

The children were aged between two and eight years old when the crimes were committed in 1999 and 2000. The detective said they were initially dealing with one isolated sexual assault on a child which came to the attention of the gardaí through the Southern Health Board.

Scully later admitted many more offences and was prosecuted and pleaded guilty to 16 counts of sexual assault relating to 15 boys and girls — one charge in relation to each of 14 victims and two charges in relation to one child.

When Scully was interviewed about one particular aspect of the sexual assaults where he cut the lining of the children’s pockets he told gardaí he did this “so that I could put my hands in and touch their parts”.