'Serial' abuse offender jailed for four years

A convicted sex offender who carried out a "serial type of abuse" on two young brothers 15 years ago has been jailed for four years by Judge Miriam Reynolds at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court.

Eamonn Mackin (aged 66) of no fixed abode, who had a number of convictions for indecent assault in Australia, pleaded guilty to eight of a sample of 38 charges of sexual assault and one attempted sexual assault of the then 12- and 13-year-old boys on dates between January 18, 1991 and August 31, 2003.

Detective inspector Bernard Sherry told Ms Mary Rose Gearty BL, prosecuting, that one of the victims revealed he would regularly cut his arms with his father’s razors to try to dull the pain of the abuse.

The older brother told gardaí that he allowed Mackin to continue the abuse because he thought that would prevent him sexually assaulting his younger brother. He only became aware in December 2001 that Mackin had also been abusing his brother after he confided in a sister.

Judge Reynolds described Mackin as a "predator" that the boys were unable to deal with and said he had "manipulated and groomed" them until he gained their trust and that of their family. She said it was a "serial type of abuse" in which Mackin had taken every chance he could to assault the boys.

She told the now 28- and 26-year-old victims that she didn’t want them leaving court thinking they could have in some way prevented the abuse and added that the guilt they felt was Mackin’s and not theirs.

She sentenced Mackin to four years in prison and order that he serve a year of post-release supervision upon his release from custody. She also placed him on the sex offenders register.

Mr Colman Fitzgerald SC (with Ms Iseult O’Malley BL), defending, told Judge Reynolds that Mackin had been sexually abused when he was 10 years old and this had affected the rest of his life.

Mr Fitzgerald said Mackin had attended a doctor in 1991 because he knew he had a problem but the doctor he visited was later struck off the medical register for inappropriate behaviour. He also attended for treatment while serving a prison sentence in Australia.

Det inspector Sherry said both victims told how Mackin would often buy them cigarettes and alcohol and the older brother said he would smoke a cigarette during the abuse to stop him thinking about what was happening.

Det inspector Sherry said the abuse stopped in 1993 when Mackin left Ireland and returned to Australia where he was convicted of two charges of indecent assault in 1997 and 1998.

The older brother attempted to report the abuse to the gardaí in 2001 but was too upset to follow through with the investigation. He returned a couple of years later to complete his complaint.

The assault mainly took the form of masturbation which Mackin engaged in on car journeys and in his bedroom and he also attempted it once with one brother in a field but the boy managed to grab his trousers and prevent Mackin from pulling them down.

Det inspector Sherry agreed with Mr Fitzgerald that the boys were never threatened with violence but said that Mackin had so gained the confidence of the family that they were afraid to report the abuse in case their parents did not believe them.

He agreed also that when Mackin was arrested in 2005 he never denied he had assaulted them.