A former Clare County Council official – already facing sentence in a graves for sale case – has been jailed for six years for sexually abusing five boys over 27 years.
At Ennis Circuit Court yesterday, Judge Carroll Moran said that the victims of Seán Leamy (61), Main Street, Tulla, had “had their childhood stolen” by him.
He said the youngest victim was a seven-year-old and the oldest was 14.
He added that it was “really scandalous” that the abuse had continued for 27 years, from 1978 to 2005.
The judge added: “All of the victims are traumatised and suffered acutely as a consequence of what happened. This is a bad case.”
Leamy, a member of the Tulla Pipe Band for 30 years, pleaded guilty to 21 counts of indecent assault and sexual assault.
Regarding one victim, Det Garda Stephen Ryan told Ennis Circuit Court that Leamy had “told the boy, ‘I have a big job in the council and no one will believe you’, and unfortunately at the time the boy believed Mr Leamy.”
Leamy has also pleaded guilty to 49 counts concerning the theft and larceny of €20,339 from the council concerning the sale of burial plots at Clonlea graveyard, Kilkishen, Co Clare, over 10 years.
Judge Moran said sentencing in that case would take place on July 2nd.
