A convicted paedophile who was described by gardai as "still active and extremely dangerous" to young boys, pleaded guilty at Galway Circuit Criminal Court yesterday to 15 sample counts of buggery, attempted buggery and indecent assault.
Patrick Flaherty (46), of Monivea Road, Ballybrit, Galway, was charged with the offences, which occurred between 1977 and 1989 at various locations in the city and involved three brothers and another boy. He told gardai he began abusing the four boys after viewing a blue movie when he was 17.
The boys, who were aged between five and eight when they were first abused, said in their statements to gardai that Flaherty had robbed them of their childhoods.
The boys were buggered and indecently assaulted in a derelict house, in fields and in a hen house after being lured to these locations by Flaherty.
The abuse went on for many years but stopped when the boys got older and were able to run away or avoid him.
One of the boys said he had threatened Flaherty with a hatchet when he got older and the abuse stopped then.
Det Garda Michael Kelleher gave evidence that Flaherty had been abusing young boys for 22 years, up to 1999, and he believed he was still an active paedophile.
Flaherty was given a suspended sentence last year for sexually assaulting two other boys in 1999. He was described in court yesterday as being a slow learner, illiterate and of low intelligence.
He lives with and cares for his elderly, bedridden mother.
Judge Carroll Moran said it was one of the worst cases of sexual abuse he had heard. He deferred sentencing until tomorrow.