A US chiropractor who sexually assaulted six female patients in Galway two years ago walked free from Galway Circuit Court yesterday with a suspended three-year sentence.
Joseph Stone (39), from Roswell, New Mexico, sexually assaulted the women who came to his clinic at Lower Newcastle Road, Galway, with neck and back problems on dates between July 1999 and March 2000.
He had massaged the women's breasts and told one of his victims he wanted her to have his children. He kissed another of his victims and told her he would have sex with her if her husband did not.
He told gardai when arrested that all Irish people were sexually repressed and 200 years behind the times. He said he was the next best thing to Jesus Christ.
At a previous court sitting it was stated that the accused man suffered from a psychiatric disorder known as Bi-Polar Affective Disorder.
Stone had been allowed to return to the US last December by Judge Carroll Moran on condition that he returned to Galway Circuit Court this week and abided by the directions of Galway-based psychiatrist Dr Laura Mannion. He was also told not to work as a chiropractor.
Judge Moran said yesterday that Stone had taken liberties with his victims while in a position of trust. He said Stone's acceptance that what he had done was wrong was ambiguous, to say the least. His behaviour, when interviewed by gardai, had been "bizarre".
Stone was sentenced to three years in prison, suspended for three years, on condition that he does not practise as a chiropractor for three years, abstains from alcohol, receives psychiatric treatment in the US and takes his medication for the next three years.
In a statement afterwards, a spokeswoman for the Galway Rape Crisis Centre said that victims of all sexual crimes would be very disheartened by the outcome of this case. "A suspended sentence sends out the wrong message to the public", she said.