Roscommon rapist jailed for 11 years

A Roscommon man who raped a baby-sitter over two decades ago has been jailed for 11 years.

John Gerard Regan (57), Cloonfad, Ballyhaunis was found guilty by a jury at the Central Criminal Court last February of raping the now 36-year-old woman on a date in 1982 and on three charges of indecently assaulting her on dates between 1979 and 1984.

The victim said she wanted Regan named in media reports of the case

Mr Justice Kevin O'Higgins who had told him then that he faced "a lengthy sentence" imposed the 11-year-sentence and directed that Regan's name be entered in the register of sex offenders.

The jury returned its 11-1 majority verdicts on day-five of the trial, having deliberated for over four hours and after spending one night in a hotel.

He had pleaded not guilty at the start of his trial to one charge of raping the woman and 29 charges of indecent assault. Mr Justice O'Higgins withdrew 26 of the charges from the jury at the trial.

He said in evidence in his own defence that the allegations aganst him were untrue and claimed the offences never happened. "I never went near her," he said.

Detective Sergeant John Hynes told prosecuting counsel, Mr Anthony Sammon SC (with Mr Vincent Heneghan BL) that when interviewed on March 15, 2005 after his arrest Regan told gardaí he had nothing to be remorseful for when they suggested "you could get it off your chest" by admitting her claims.

"If I done all those things you have written down from her, I would be remorseful," he said.

The now 36-year-old woman told Mr Sammon she was sexually assaulted from the age of seven by the man who she said raped her when she was 11-years-old and staying in his house after baby-sitting.

She told Mr Sammon that following the initial rape it happened several other times when she was baby sitting.

She also described numerous incidents where she alleged he would pull up beside her on the road and take her to an isolated bog land and sexually assault her.

She rejected a suggestion by defence counsel, Mr Martin Giblin SC (with Mr Francis Comerford BL), that prior to her making the allegations to gardai she bore a grudge against the man's daughter because she believed she had called social services about her with concerns about the welfare of her child.

She told Mr Giblin she hadn't been visited by social services and that in fact it was she who went to them. The woman also denied a suggestion by Mr Giblin that she resented an incident where the man's daughter offered to take her (complainant's) baby home from the pub one day because she "had had a few drinks".

She further denied that after she was allegedly reported to social services she approached the man's daughter in a local pub and said: "Don't you be talking about me."