A chance meeting in a hackney cab led to the conviction yesterday of a paedophile for the sexual abuse of a little girl 33 years ago.
Brendan McErlain (60), a hackney driver and father of four from Clareview Park, Ballybane, Galway, was placed on the sex offenders register and remanded on continuing bail to July 19th for sentencing by Judge Raymond Groarke.
His past caught up with him in 1998, when he drove a female passenger - who happened to be a younger sister of the victim - to the family home and remarked that he had once dated a woman, whom he named, from that area.
His passenger realised the woman was her aunt and she recalled her sister had complained to the family of being sexually abused by the man at the time her aunt had been dating him in 1974.
At his trial before a jury at Galway Circuit Criminal Court,McErlain, a native of Co Antrim who was formerly employed by Galway County Council as a draughtsman, and who is now a hackney driver, denied three charges of indecently assaulting the child when subsequently interviewed by Det Garda John Flatley.
His victim, who is now 39, told the jury she was shown pornographic photographs of children engaging in sex with men when she was six years old by McErlain, who then sexually abused her in her grandmother's home.