Judge: Abuser stole his victims’ innocence

Two girls were subjected to depraved behaviour by a man who showed them pornographic magazines and sexually assaulted them.

Aidan Anthony (Tony) Lacey, jailed for six years yesterday, took away a lot of the childhood innocence of his victims, a judge noted.

Lacey, aged 54, of Sheilbaggan, Ramsgrange, New Ross, Co Wexford, pleaded guilty to sexually assaulting the two girls in the basement workshop of his home in Kerry between Jan 2007 and Feb 2008.

At Cork Circuit Criminal Court yesterday, Judge Patrick J Moran told Lacey: “You abused and assaulted two young girls. They were between seven and eight at the time of these incidents.

“You became involved in their joyful playing and you showed them adult pornographic magazines. The girls asked you what these magazines portrayed and you explained the mechanics of these sexual acts to them.

“You exposed your penis to the girls and, on occasions, the girls pulled your trousers down as part of this game.

“You encouraged them to take down their underwear exposing their private parts to you.

“You put them over your shoulder and slapped them on their bare bottoms. You exposed your bare bottom to them.

“I have to say these young girls were subject to something very depraved and very unpleasant for them.

“It is something they are going to remember forever. One can only hope they will grow up as fairly mature young women and get on with their lives.

“While it is not at the most serious level, at the same time the surrounding circumstances were of a very depraved nature. I must not forget what these girls went through. A lot of the innocence of their childhood has been taken away from them.”

Tom Creed SC, defending, said that in pleading guilty, the defendant thereby obviated the necessity of a trial and the children having to give evidence.

Mr Creed said the defendant, who has lost his job since the incidents, apologised to the victims and their families.

A detective garda involved in the case told Siobhán Lankford, prosecuting, that the only physical contact occurred when the defendant put them over his shoulder and tapped them on the bare bottom.

He encouraged them to touch his penis with a magnifying glass.

The mother of one victim was told by her daughter as she was changing her infant son’s nappy and gently tapping his bottom, “That is what Tony does to us”.

One of the girls told her mother that what she described as what looked like Nurofen gel came out of the defendant’s penis.

The detective confirmed to Mr Creed that two arson attacks had been carried out at the defendant’s home when the crimes came to light, locally, although there was no suggestion of any involvement by the families of the injured parties.

Ms Lankford told the judge the DPP viewed the case as being in the lower category for such offences but at the upper end of this particular category.