Man gets 20 years for sexual abuse of his five children in a 'grotesque breach of parental trust'
Survivors Jessica, Helen, Christopher, and Amanda Farrell outside Dublin Circuit Court on Friday. Picture: Collins Courts
A man who sexually abused five of his children, who were locked in a room for days at a time without food and forced to drink urine, has been jailed for 20 years.
Noel Farrell, aged 70, pleaded guilty at the Central Criminal Court to a number of sample counts of sexual abuse against his four daughters and one son at various addresses in Co. Sligo over two decades.
Sentencing him on Friday, Mr Justice Tony Hunt said this was a case he suspected would stand out in his memory “for all the wrong reasons” including the extreme cruelty and gravity of the offending. “It is truly shocking,” he said.
“One runs out of words in trying to describe the depths plumbed in this particular case. I say this as a way of trying to illustrate how extreme and awful the nature of the facts in this case are.”Â
He said the complainants were dealt a terrible hand in life and were exposed to a “grotesque breach of parental trust”. He said they had shown an extraordinary degree of fortitude and courage in how they faced up to their lives.
Noting the lack of mitigating factors in the case, save for the guilty plea, Mr Justice Hunt set a headline sentence of 30 years, which he reduced to 20 years. He said there was no need to impose a post-release supervision order, because if Farrell “does emerge from a custodial sentence”, he will be extremely elderly.
Farrell, of Rathedmond Estate, Sligo, Co. Sligo, made no visible reaction as the sentence was handed down, while the complainants in the case embraced each other.
The court heard that four of the five children wished to waive their right to anonymity so Farrell could be identified in reporting and that the fifth did not wish to be named herself but wished for Farrell to be named.
In victim impact statements, the five siblings spoke of the effects of the abuse on their mental health, relationships, and lives.
Some of the victims also spoke about developing addiction issues and the impact of being placed into care.
Farrell initially faced 109 counts, but pleaded guilty to three counts of rape against three of his daughters, and 19 counts of indecent assault and sexual assault relating to all five complainants.
The five victims were aged between two and 17 during the periods when Farrell abused them.
Giving evidence last December, Garda Sergeant Diarmuid Fearon outlined that Farrell and his late wife had serious issues with alcohol.
The court heard evidence of neglect, including some of the children often going hungry, being locked in a room for days and being forced to drink urine to survive.
After the marriage broke down, Farrell went to England. Some of the children were taken into care in 1981.
The court was told the Health Board had concerns about sexual misconduct and this was reported in some form in 1989.
Mr Justice Hunt said it was clear from the victim impact statements that the abuse caused profound and enduring harm to the five complainants.
“I want to say how impressive you are and how impressive you have been in facing what you faced and how you faced it,” he told them.
 “You can hold your head up high.”Â
The first complainant, Amanda, told gardaĂ her father sexually abused her for the first time when she was around seven years old.
She was later taken into care, then went to live with her grandmother after which the abuse ended. She confronted her father in the pub when she was 18, asking why he did it and he replied “I don’t know”.
Farrell also admitted abusing another daughter Helen. Evidence was heard that she was aged between four and six-and-a-half when the abuse took place.
She told gardaĂ that the children would be locked in a bedroom when Farrell and her mother left the house. There was a bucket left in the room for them to use.
She said they could be left for a day or two while their parents were out.
She was taken into care when she was four or five and the abuse continued whenever he would take her for visits.
In her victim impact statement, Helen said the abuse had a “devastating and lasting impact”, and took away her sense of safety and innocence.
She said the trauma has affected all aspects of her life and she became an alcoholic.
Jessica Farrell told gardaà she was first abused when she was around three and half years old in an aunt’s house.
She was taken into care when she was four.
Reading her victim impact statement, Jessica Farrell said she was hurt by the person who was supposed to protect her the most.
“The impact of your actions did not end years ago,” she said, adding that she is still healing.
Farrell further pleaded guilty to two counts of indecently assaulting his son Christopher.
Reading his victim impact statement, Christopher said the abuse affected his mental health, relationships and education as he was unable to trust others.
He said he turned to addiction later in his teens to “try to block out the trauma”.
Christopher Farrell said he was “going to do everything in my power” to be the man he was supposed to be and to move forward in his life.
Noel Farrell also pleaded guilty to raping and abusing a fourth daughter. She went into care when she was three, but would often run away, the court heard.
A formal complaint was made to gardaĂ in 2019. Farrell was voluntarily interviewed in March 2022 and denied all the allegations against him.
In her statement, the fourth daughter said she does not think her father will ever “understand or feel the way you affected my life". She said: “You convinced so many people that you never did anything to us,” she said.
“I was only a baby and you took my life away from me.” She said the abuse impacted her mental health and that she developed anorexia.
- If you are affected by any of the issues raised in this article, please click here for a list of support services.
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