The victims and their families who suffered at the hands of James Lombard expressed disappointment at the seven-year sentence with two years suspended handed down to the serial abuser today in Cork Circuit Criminal Court.
James Lombard was initially convicted of sexually assaulting seven boys in the toilets of fast-food restaurants and swimming-pool dressing rooms in Cork but subsequently pleaded guilty to sexually assaulting a further nine children.
Lombard, from the Sunday's Well area of Cork, was extradited from England last June to face the abuse charges.
However, he went missing on the last day of his trial on February 7th and was later rearrested in Carrigaline on February 28th.
Judge Sean Ó Donobháin suspended two years of the jail sentence on strict conditions and placed Lombard on the register of sex offenders indefinitely.
The victims - who were aged between four and ten when they were abused by 37-year-old Lombard from the Blarney Street in the Sunday's Well area of Cork - are now all young men and woman and together with their parents, they were unanimously disappointed and frustrated by the sentence handed down by Judge Sean O Donnabhain.
The father of one victim - who was aged just ten when Lombard forced him to strip in a fast food toilet cubicle and then rubbed his face on his chest before touching his private parts - spoke for many when he told of the family's disappointment.
"I expected he would have gone down for ten years at least - that the sentence would have been into double figures given the huge number of children he abused and the fact that they were all so young," said the man who didn't wish to be named.
The boy's mother added: "He's got seven years with two years suspended so he has five years to serve but with remission, he'll be out in four years or less whereas all our children, they will have to live with what he did to them for the rest of their lives."
The couple's son - who is now aged 20 - also expressed disappointment at the sentence; "I'm disgusted at it -he should have got ten years at least - justice wasn't done but I'm still glad I came forward because if I hadn't, he'd be out walking the streets in a year and a half."