A Connemara man has been jailed for eight years for orally raping a-then teenage boy almost 15 years ago.
Colm Feeney (52), single and unemployed of Caislean, Indreabhan, Co Galway, was found guilty at the Central Criminal Court on February 25th by a jury which returned unanimous verdicts on 11 charges following five hours of deliberations. The trial lasted three days.
The jury convicted him on two charges of oral rape, one of attempted buggery and eight of indecent assault on dates from July 1989 to July 1991 at public toilets on Eyre Square, Ceannt Station and the Bridge Mills in Galway city centre.
Mr Justice Kevin O'Higgins imposed two terms of eight years each on the oral rape charges and nine terms of five years each on the attempted buggery and indecent assault counts. The sentences are to run concurrent and to date from February 25th when Feeney went into custody.
He suspended the final year of each of the eight-year terms on condition that Feeney take a bond in his own recognisances to place himself under the care of the Probation and Welfare Services for three years following his release from prison.
Mr Padraig O'Higgins SC, defence counsel, told the court Feeney still protested his innocence so that he was prescribed from making any further case in mitigation.
Mr Justice O'Higgins told Feeney he had been convicted by a jury and the court had to honour that decision by imposing sentence despite his protestations of innocence. He said the victim remained scarred and seriously hurt by what Feeney did to him but was now trying to get his life together for the future.
The now 27-year-old victim told the media he was "very happy and satisfied" with both the jury's verdicts and the sentences handed down to Feeney.