July 2000 Father of three gets seven years for rape A FORMER AIB bank porter who raped his manager’s daughter 20 years ago has been jailed for a total of seven years at the Central Criminal Court. John Cregan (54), a father of three from Croom, Co Limerick, was convicted last October on six charges of raping a now 30-year-old married woman, eight charges of unlawful carnal knowledge and one of indecently assaulting her on dates from 1979 to 1982. The jury returned its unanimous guilty verdicts in the rape case after almost four hours deliberations following a four-day trial. She was aged between eight and 11 when abused. Cregan was also jailed for one year and 11 months on four charges of indecently assaulting a now 33-year-old married woman from the same village in 1974 and 1975. She was aged between eight and nine at the time. The sentences are to run concurrently and date from last October. Mr Justice Philip O’Sullivan noted the victims wanted Cregan named and said he had no jurisdiction to make an order prohibiting that. He refused an application by Isabel Kennedy BL, defending, for leave to appeal. Sgt Vincent McCoy told prosecuting counsel Kenneth Mills SC (with Brendan Nix BL) the defendant had never come to garda notice before these matters. He was very involved locally in sports activities. The indecent assault victim told Mr Justice O’Sullivan she was “very glad that a real threat to all children is being removed from society”. She said she wanted to appeal to all victims of child sexual abuse to come forward and blamed the abuse for the “very disturbed life” she lived until she reported it. She had suffered serious bouts of depression and had also drank to excess. Her condition also led to the break-up of a seven-year relationship. “I found it difficult to cope and thought I was going out of my mind at one stage,” she said. She added that she finally went to gardai because she feared her marriage was going to break-up. Counselling had made her realise her problems all stemmed from the sexual abuse. The woman told Mr Justice O’Sullivan she had found it “insulting and hurtful” to listen to Cregan’s wife tell the court her husband could not have committed the offences, after he admitted indecently assaulting her. She was also concerned that Cregan had not offered an apology nor expressed one word of remorse for what he had done to her. “He ruined my life and I couldn’t begin to express the depth of the horror he put me through,” she said. Mr Justice O’Sullivan told the victim he recognised it took “very great courage” for her and the rape victim to give evidence in their cases. The victim impact reports indicated the considerable turmoil and difficulty the abuse created for them resulting in them suffering from feelings of isolation, self-hatred, depression, impaired ability to relate to others and, in one case, alcoholism. Mr Justice O’Sullivan said the rape victim had been put through the trauma of a trial and cross-examination. He noted Cregan still denied the rape offences to the probation officer and said this was consistent with his wife’s evidence on his behalf. Cregan admitted the offences against the second victim at the last minute. Mr Justice O’Sullivan told Cregan he had abused a position of trust not only as an AIB bank porter in Croom but also as a trusted confidante and well respected member of his community.