advertisement

Ennis Judge Jails “Guilt Ridden” Paedophile For Four Years

A judge yesterday imposed a four year prison term on a guilt ridden paedophile who sexually abused a four year old girl.

At Ennis Circuit Court, Judge Gerald Keys imposed a four year prison term with the final two years suspended on Ciaran Colgan (56) of Glenna Heorna, Springfield, Tallaght, Dublin.

- Advertisement -

In the case, Mr Colgan went to a Dublin Garda Station in 2010 to confess that he had sexually abused a four year old girl nine years earlier in Co Clare.

During his visit to Crumlin Garda Station, Mr Colgan made admissions to Gardai at Crumlin Garda Station that he had abused the girl on three different occasions in 2001 to 2003 in west Clare.

Mr Colgan identified the child by name and told Gardai that he didn’t wish to make a statement but if a complaint was ever made, that he would make admit to everything.

Mr Colgan walked free from the Garda station as there was no complaint against him at that time and four years later Mr Colgan offended again in 2014 when he posed as a 16 year old boy on Facebook and sent sexually explicit messages to a 12 year old girl.

In March of this year, Mr Colgan received a four year jail term at Cavan Circuit Court with the final two and a half year suspended for the sexual exploitation of a child concerning the Facebook offence.

Yesterday, Judge Keys said that he couldn’t ignore the conviction recorded in March of this year.

In relation to the offence before Ennis court, Judge Keys told Mr Colgan that “you abused your victim for your own sexual gratification and you abused your position of trust when babysitting”.

Judge Keys also pointed out that Mr Colgan’s victim was aged four to five at the time.

In Mr Colgan’s favour, Judge Keys said that he had no previous convictions at the time of the offence; has pleaded guilty; came forward voluntarily and admitted his criminal conduct.

Judge Keys said that Mr Colgan has apologised for his wrong doing and is prepared to engage with the Probation Service and undergo Sex Offenders treatment programme.

Mr Colgan’s marriage ended in 1992 and is a father of two grown up children, aged 27 and 26.

The case came to court after the Clare victim last year went to a Garda station to make formal complaints against Mr Colgan and when interviewed, Mr Colgan confessed. He told Gardai: “I am sorry. I am very sorry.”

Mr Colgan abused the girl on three occasions when baby-sitting her. In her victim impact statement, the complainant said she has come forward and put “myself in this complicated and sensitive process mainly to ensure the protection of other children but also as closure for myself so that I continue to heal and better myself”.

She said: “I was such a young girl in a vulnerable situation and I was used for pleasure by an adult I was expected to respect.”

She said: “At the age of five, I didn’t have the words to describe how I was feeling but now I do.”

She added: “As a child, I felt different to the children around me. I remember feeling disgusted and ashamed of myself for what happened, which I see is a massive burden to carry.”

She said that the in the years after the abuse “I bottled up all my emotions and it took a toll on my mental health and I suffered low self esteem and I went through a period of self harming”.

She said: “My childhood innocence was taken from me and I was forced to grow up too fast with a warped version of the world. It wasn’t a world I wanted to live in.”

The three different sexual assaults took place between March 2001 and March 2003 in west Clare.

Judge Keys backdated the sentence to May 15th to when Mr Colgan entered his guilty plea.

advertisement
advertisement
advertisement