Limerick pensioner who abused granddaughters fails to have sentence reduced

A PAEDOPHILE pensioner who was jailed for repeatedly sexually assaulting his two granddaughters has failed in a bid to have his 11-year sentence reduced by the Court of Appeal.

Serial abuser Patrick Shanahan, aged 77, of Cooga, Doon was convicted by a jury at Limerick Circuit Criminal Court, in July 2022, of 14 counts of sexually assaulting the two sisters over periods in 2010 and 2014 when they were between 10 and 14.

Shanahan, who had pleaded not guilty to all charges, was subsequently sentenced to 13 years’ imprisonment with the final two years suspended. Last November, he failed in an attempt to have that conviction overturned.

The two grandchildren, Daria and Tara Tobin, waived their rights to anonymity so that Shanahan could be publicly named in the media as their child abuser.

At the Court of Appeal, sitting in Cork this Tuesday, Ms Justice Úna Ní Raifeartaigh in dismissing the appeal, said Shanahan’s lawyers had submitted that the sentencing judge had erred by treating the appellant’s “non-acceptance” of the jury’s verdict as an aggravating factor.

In her sentencing remarks, Judge Catherine Staines had said that aggravating factors included Shanahan having prior convictions for the sexual assaults of three other children.

The trial judge, in her sentencing comments, said: “There were [a number of] counts in all, for which he is now serving a term of imprisonment. I note that the defendant does not accept the verdicts.”

Ms Justice Ní Raifeartaigh said: “There was no dispute about the principle that exercising one’s right to trial by jury cannot be treated as an aggravating factor. If that had happened that would indeed be an error. “Having examined the sentencing judge’s remarks, we are not persuaded that this is what in fact happened here.”

The judge that there had been “perhaps some ambiguity” in the judge’s remarks over whether she was referring to the verdict of the previous trial or the one before her.

“However, we do not think it matters because in either eventuality we do not think the judge’s noting of the situation amounted to the treatment of this circumstance as an aggravating factor,” said Ms Justice Ní Raifeartaigh.

“We do not accept that the sentencing judge made the alleged error of principle in this regard,” she added.

In summarising the aggravating factors in the current case, Ms Justice Ní Raifeartaigh said the offending took place over a “significant period of time in respect of two sisters” and was “serious and included digital penetration of the vagina by the finger and oral contact”.

Ms Justice Ní Raifeartaigh said the children “were extremely vulnerable by reason of their parents being deaf and illiterate”. 

She said their grandfather was a significant presence in their life who took advantage of their vulnerability and "abused the trust inherent in his familial position in the most egregious way”. 

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The judge noted that the “effects on the victims were severe and long-lasting”.

“It was a very serious case of multiple sexual assaults of two children with several aggravating circumstances,” she said.

The judge said there was “very little” by way of mitigation in the case but that the sentencing judge had ordered a two-year suspended period and allowed the sentence to overlap with the other jail term Shanahan is already serving.

Ms Justice Ní Raifeartaigh said the sentencing judge also had regard to the appellant’s age “which was probably the most significant factor to be taken into account” in the absence of a guilty plea.

“We accept that the sentence was a significant one for a man of the appellant’s age but we have reached the conclusion that the sentencing judge did not err in imposing the sentence and we dismiss the appeal against severity of sentence,” said Ms Justice Ní Raifeartaigh.