Torture, rape and abuse with no remorse — and we’ve set him free

WE are still living in a country with a Tír na n-Óg attitude to time, at least in a legal context. Why else would one of the most evil men who was ever forced into an Irish courtroom serve just nine years of the 238 years he earned for his horrific crimes?

The dichotomy in the case of Joseph McColgan, who pleaded guilty to 26 token charges of physical and sexual abuse against his own children, was that the total of the sentences was made concurrent, rather than consecutive, and so in practical terms did not reflect the horror of what he did.

He was eventually sentenced to 12 years but with remission he was released this week after serving a paltry nine years.

In any reasonable person's logic, it is incomprehensible that if the crimes committed by somebody are so horrific that they warrant a cumulative sentence of 238 years, that the person is freed back into society after a mere nine years.

McColgan, it is reported, will be remembered by prison officers as an obnoxious, aggressive character who never once showed any remorse for his terrible crimes and failed to attend a single sex offenders' counselling session.

He will be remembered by his children as the embodiment of sheer evil. They warned against his release from jail because they believe he will re-offend.

The monster was given the 238-year sentence because systematically he physically and sexually abused four of his six children for more than 17 years.

Apart from the awful sexual abuse, on at least one occasion he dropped a concrete block on the fingers of his son, who was only six years old at the time. It beggars belief that a father could torture his own children or any children to the extent which he did. The serial rape and abuse went on for longer than 20 years more than twice the time he served in prison.

We have had controversies about prison sentencing here for a long time, from the revolving door syndrome, to early release and mandatory sentencing.

It is essential, if our legal system is to prevail, that the people have confidence in it and the basic principle that justice must be seen to be done is an inherent element in consolidating that confidence.

Any and every time justice is perceived to have been thwarted, the system is eroded somewhat. And the drip effect begins to sap the confidence that people should have in one of our fundamental institutions.

What happened in the McColgan case is bound to test our belief in the justice system and certainly gives rise to seriously reviewing the practice of making sentences concurrent in such vile circumstances.

The notion that when someone is sent to jail on conviction of a serious offence, the key should be thrown away is one that, generally speaking, has been replaced with the more enlightened attitude that prison should be a place for rehabilitation. McColgan is an exception.

According to the experts, three out of every five child abusers who have not received treatment will re-offend.

When McColgan was again inflicted on society, he walked out the prison gates without a shred of remorse for what he had done and having failed to attend a single sex offenders' counselling session. In other words, he walked back out the same man who entered prison nine years ago.

When he was sentenced in 1995 to 238 years' imprisonment, it was heralded as the longest sentence in Irish legal history. In reality, it was no such thing. Because the sentences were made concurrent, he ended up with one of just 12 years and he didn't even serve that length of time.

It transpired that 229 years of the sentence were merely symbolic. There was nothing symbolic about the reign of evil to which he subjected his children.

One of the country's leading psychologists, Olive Travers of the North Western Health Board, has said that child sex offenders can be treated to stop abusive behaviour in the majority of cases. Research showed that treatment reduced the rate of re-offending and played a significant role in child protection.

Although not referring to the McColgan case, she said: "There is a minority of sex offenders for whom when people say lock them up and throw away the key yes, for some men I think that is the only way society can be protected."

Ms Travers went on to say that the most dangerous of child abusers, the sociopathic sex offender, was untreatable.

"The dangerousness of that person possibly comes from their sense of right, the fact that they have ownership... their family is like a possession and that they can treat them, and do to them, whatever they will. On the rare occasion we've met men like that, we find them non-amenable to treatment."

In McColgan, I think, we have met one, except that for the rest of us it was in the pages of our newspapers, unlike his own unfortunate children who lived a life of terror and for whom the nightmare will always be there.

Very early on Tuesday morning, McColgan was given whatever cash was owed to him and a travel pass to go anywhere he wanted. Wherever he decided to go, he was expected to register as a sex offender with the local garda station.

There are fundamental lessons to be learned from the McColgan case, and important questions need to be answered.

TALKING about lessons, but in a completely different context, I'm glad to see that Gortahork National School in Donegal has been included in the latest round of funding being made available to schools for urgent structural and repair work during the summer holidays.

It means that the pupils and teachers there will have to put up with visiting rats in the playground until then, but at least it will be safe when they return.

You may remember that Minister for Education Noel Dempsey had threatened to withhold money for the essential work to the school because the parents had had the temerity to protest by removing the children from the school last December.

The minister is currently providinge31 million for the schools, and 450 of them will get a couple of bob towards crucial work that needs to be carried out to take some of them out of the Third World conditions they are enduring.

The extent of the problem with our schools is reflected in the fact that when the funding was announced by the minister, about 1,200 schools applied. That means that between primary and secondary schools, there are at least another 750 crying out for urgent work to be carried out on them. That is some reflection on one of the richest countries in Europe.