A mentally handicapped man who sexually assaulted a teenage girl shortly after being allowed home from jail has been sent to Mountjoy Prison by Judge Kieran O'Connor. The Circuit Criminal Court was told he had been freed because the State had no suitable place to detain him.
Judge O'Connor was told there was no place in the Central Mental Hospital but that a place on a Belfast programme might soon become available. He also ordered that the defendant, aged 23, should not be named.
The man, who had sexually assaulted an eight-year-old girl, was released to his parents on April 16th because there was no place for mentally handicapped sex offenders. He sexually assaulted a 14-year-old girl on April 27th. The court was told that the Eastern Health Board was prepared to fund a place for the defendant in a rehabilitation programme for mentally handicapped sex offenders in Belfast. Judge O'Connor imposed a three-year suspended sentence for sexually assaulting the eight-year-old girl and said he had no choice but to place him in Mountjoy until a place became available on the Belfast programme.