Cork man jailed for teen abuse

A 78-year-old man has been sentenced to four years in jail with half of it suspended yesterday for the sexual abuse of a girl in her teenage years in the 1970s.

Tony McCarthy of Fairylawn, Coolatooder, Ballinhassig, Co Cork, was sentenced at Cork Circuit Criminal Court after pleading guilty earlier this year to eight counts of indecently assaulting the girl from 1969 when she was aged 12 to 1977.

Judge Seán Ó Donnabháin said: “His plea is a public acknowledgement the victim is correct which is a vindication of her position to the public. I say that because certain people, not the accused, according to the victim, were blaming her and not putting the blame where it lay, with the accused.