A 73-year-old pensioner who engaged in a “persistent regime of depravity” by sexually abusing his neighbours’ two young daughters almost every day for 10 years, was jailed yesterday for seven years with the final year suspended.
Imposing the sentence on former ballroom dancer Anthony Hardiman, Cardinal Cushing Road, Galway, Judge Raymond Groarke said at Galway Circuit Criminal Court that the two little girls (who are now grown women), had been the victims of a “persistent regime of depravity and a reign of terror” at the accused's hands.
Judge Groarke said reports handed into court outlined the impact the abuse had and would continue to have on the victims.
The judge suspended the final year of the seven-year sentence and placed him on the sex offenders’ register for life.