West Cork man jailed for sexual assault — despite none of the six boys making complaint

Psychotherapist witnessed his interactions with the children at a fast-food restaurant and said, 'I felt sick looking at him'

Judge Helen Boyle imposed a sentence of four years and six months, with the last year suspended, at Cork Circuit Criminal Court.  Picture: Dan Linehan

An unusual sexual assault case has resulted in a West Cork man being jailed for three-and-a-half years despite none of the six boys involved making a formal complaint.

Daniel Connolly, aged 45, was convicted by a jury on the basis of CCTV footage and the evidence of a psychotherapist who witnessed his interactions with the children at a fast-food restaurant.

The psychotherapist, who happened to be visiting Cork from Galway at the time, told the court that what she observed at a neighbouring table that day made her feel sick. 

Judge Helen Boyle imposed a sentence of four years and six months, with the last year suspended, at Cork Circuit Criminal Court.

The judge said the aggravating factor in the case against Daniel Connolly is that he had relevant previous convictions. He recently failed to comply with the terms of the Sex Offenders Register by using a different version of his name when he was applying for rental accommodation. 

In 2020 he got a sentence of three years with one year suspended for having more than 2,000 images of child sexual abuse material. In 2005 he was convicted of sexual assault and buggery of two boys, aged 11-12, in 2002/2003, and was given a sentence of five years with the last two years suspended.

The present case centred on events that occurred on a Saturday afternoon in September 2023. Connolly was convicted by a jury of seven men and five women on eight counts of sexual assault involving six boys, with unanimous guilty verdicts returned on seven counts and a 10-2 majority verdict on the eighth.

Psychotherapist observed scene at fast-food outlet

Sergeant Paul Cogan gave Judge Boyle a summary of the evidence in the case which was reported by Karen Martin, a psychotherapist from Galway who was in a fast-food outlet in the Cork area with nieces and nephews on Saturday, September 23, 2023, at around 6pm and observed what was occurring.

Ms Martin testified in the trial: “My attention was brought to a man over to my left with five boys around him. I was at a table close to that man. We were there for 45 minutes to an hour. He was middle-aged, average size and height, and he did not stand out in any way. He had a Cork accent, or to the south.

“My attention kept being pulled over to that table. I am a mother and I was struck by the five boys — they were really quiet. 

He kept continuously rubbing the head of one of the boys. It was unnatural. I felt sick looking at him. 

"The boys were seven/eight-ish to 11/12.

“He was constantly rubbing him (his head). I have a boy myself — there is no way a boy would let you rub him for that period of time. It did not look right… One of the boys came over and slapped his leg and said, ‘I don’t like you, I don’t like you’. And I found that strange. I was really struck by how meek, quiet, and passive [the boy] was.

“I did not like looking at the man rubbing him. It looked all wrong.” 

The following day, after returning to Galway, Ms Martin reported what she had seen to gardaí. 

Connolly charged with sexual assault

Sergeant Paul Cogan of the Garda Protective Services Unit later charged Connolly with sexually assaulting six boys. The offences related to four Saturday afternoons at the same fast-food outlet.

Unusually, the evidence in the trial was based almost entirely on CCTV from the premises. There were no statements of complaint and the children did not give evidence. 

Det Garda Cogan said that when the gardaí began to investigate, several members visited the homes of the families of the children. The parents became concerned that they might be in trouble themselves and they did not give consent for their children to be interviewed by specialist interviewers. Sgt Cogan said the parents were told by the defendant that he was married and a sports coach — neither was true.

When interviewed, the accused said that as well as bringing the boys to the fast-food premises, he brought them to a swimming pool and to Fitzgerald Park.

He denied being a paedophile. He said he hugged the boys because they hugged him and had no bad intentions with these children and no desire to sexually exploit them.

Paula McCarthy, prosecution barrister, said in her closing speech to the jury that when one mother asked him about taking the boys out for fast-food and buying them footballs, he told her that he loved children. He said he did not have children of his own and that he considered the boys to be his friends and he loved them. He used to contact them on Snapchat.

Ms McCarthy said: “He tells you these children are his friends; he is a man in his 40s. They are 10. He never goes into the family homes. I say it amounted to sexual assault. It is prolonged and overly tactile, with children he had only met.

Ray Boland, defence senior counsel, said in his closing speech: “The prosecution are saying this is creepy, this is weird, there is a bit of a bang off it. 

"Maybe it is the behaviour of a lonely person. He could be very important to these kids. They were dying to go out with him.” 

He said that maybe the witness, who works with the Rape Crisis Centre, might have been hyper-vigilant but he said that nobody else noticed anything wrong. 

He said that if someone was going to sexually assault children, it would be extraordinary to do it in a very busy public place where there was CCTV.

Judge Boyle made an order preventing publication of the defendant’s address, save to say West Cork.