November 2006 Convicted child sex abuser walks free from court Convicted Ardfert sex abuser John Slattery escaped jail this week and is walking freely walking around his local community. The convicted child sex offender walked from court in Tralee on Tuesday having pleaded guilty to two vile sex offences involving a young child. Mr Slattery — a 38-year-old businessman from East Commons in Ardfert — admitted that he had committed two sexual assaults on a girl when she was aged three and four years of age. The incidents, which took place in 2003, were described by Judge Carroll Moran this week as “not the most serious but pretty disgusting”. “Everybody reacts to these type of offences with revulsion and the courts have a duty to reflect this,” Judge Moran said at Tralee Circuit court on Tuesday. But Mr Slattery avoided being sent to jail for his vile acts and was handed a three-year prison sentence, suspended for three years on condition that he gets treatment and that he does no have any unsupervised contact with children under the age of 17 years. Neither is to commit any offence with sexual connotations for a period of five years. As Mr Slattery sat in the dock waiting for sentence to be passed, a doctor of psychology said that the accused man had responded in a sexual way to an emotional gesture made by the child. “It was an inappropriate response,” Dr Jeanine DeVolder said. The defendant’s barrister argued that Mr Slattery was unlikely to re-offend and that he would be unlikely to get proper treatment were he sent to prison. The court was also told that the self-employed businessman has a low level of intellectual function and that he struggles to come to terms with how his behaviour has impacted on his victim and on others. “He’s not mad and he’s not bad. He’s not a man that goes out and looks for children. A misunderstanding arose,” Barrister Elizabeth Murphy said. Judge Carroll Moran contrasted the crimes of Mr Slattery with those committed by convicted Kenmare sex offender Gustav Dahm who was sentenced to 10 years in jail last week. “Fortunately, the young girl has made a recovery and doesn’t think about it any more,” Judge Moran said.