A 76-year-old man has been sentenced to eight-and-a-half years in prison for the sexual abuse of a boy in the west of Ireland over a five-year period.
Castlebar Circuit Criminal Court heard that the victim was groomed by the perpetrator when he travelled to Ireland on holiday each year.
The abuse happened at a number of locations, on dates between 2000 and 2005. Gardaí were notified when the victim came forward and made a complaint in 2010.
The accused was arrested overseas and extradited to Ireland in 2014.
He has been in custody here since then. He pleaded guilty to the five charges before the court.
In a victim-impact statement read to the court, the man said the abuser had robbed him of a normal childhood and left him haunted into his adult life.
He told the court that the man who carried out the crimes was a larger-than-life figure, who had completely manipulated his family into trusting him. He said it was now clear that everything he did was in preparation for the abuse he carried out.
The victim told the court that he had been under the control of the man between the ages of 12 and 17. In the aftermath of the abuse he felt lonely, depressed and suicidal.
He told Judge Rory McCabe that he decided to break his silence and tell his family and gardaí about the abuse when he became concerned that a young relative of his might be at risk from the same man.
The statement detailed how the accused man had shown no sign of remorse for his actions.
The court heard how the man took photographs as the crimes were being perpetrated and how the abuse took place each summer over a number of years.
Defending barrister Eoin Garavan told the court this was an extremely difficult and tragic case.
He said his client had clearly broken the trust of the victim and his family. The accused was said to have a number of medical conditions and was "quite immobile" as a result.
Judge McCabe said the charges were of a most serious nature. He said careful and calculated grooming had taken place and that, allied to the duration of time the abuse went on for, there were significant aggravating factors.
He imposed sentences ranging from 20 months to eight and a half years for the five charges. Judge McCabe ordered that these be served concurrently but said the lack of remorse shown meant there was no scope to suspend any portion of the sentence.
The judge backdated the sentence to January 2014, when the accused was initially arrested.
