Pensioner jailed for 20 years of child abuse

A pensioner and father of eight, who abused four young boys over a period of nearly 20 years, was jailed for four years today.

Mattie Keady, 68, from Spiddal, Co Galway, pleaded guilty at Galway Circuit Court to 12 sample charges of indecent assault and buggery, after initially facing 117 counts.

The offences against the boys, now in their 30s, 40s and 50s, took place between 1962 and 1980 while Keady was employed as a factory manager.

The sex assaults were carried out in Keady’s house and car, in a nearby bog and in a quarry.

One of the boys was only six years old at the time, and none knew that the others were being abused.

Judge Caroll Moran said it had been ‘‘very difficult’’ to listen to evidence of the abuse the boys had suffered and the details had been very distressing.

He noted that the abuse of the boys had been aggravated by the fact that Keady had been regarded as ‘‘a pillar of society’’.

But he also said there had been no evidence that there had been any sexual assaults by Keady after 1980.

After the case, a spokesman for Galway’s Rape Crisis Centre criticised the leniency of the sentence and described the victims of the abuse as ‘‘survivors’’.

The case came to light when one of the abused men approached the Rape Crisis Centre about his experience.