December 2011 Seven years for rapes and assaults of two girls A MAYO man who carried out increasingly extreme rapes and sexual assaults against two girls aged eight and nine has been jailed for seven years at the Central Criminal Court. Kevin Owen McDonnell (39), a barman, from Bangor Erris, Ballina, had pleaded not guilty to 16 counts of sexual assault and 13 counts of oral rape against one girl, and 14 counts of sexual assault, 13 counts of oral rape and one count of anal rape against the second child between June 1999 and September 2000. He was convicted by a jury on all counts last month. Mr Justice Garrett Sheehan said, having considered the victim impact report: “They showed great courage and resilience in giving evidence and I hope they are able to build on these qualities and, with help and support, go on to lead less troubled lives.” He said the breach of trust in the case was not as great as in other cases, because the girls had not been entrusted into McDonnell’s care. Mr Justice Sheehan said he had taken into account McDonnell’s lack of previous convictions, his good work record and the fact that his “eventual integration into real life” due to the publicity of the case in the national media would be difficult. He sentenced McDonnell to seven years in relation to the anal rape count, six years for each of the oral rapes and three years for the sexual assaults. He ordered them to be served concurrently and backdated the sentence to when he first went into custody after the trial. Mr Justice Sheehan said he did not consider a post-release supervision order was appropriate having heard the evidence from Garda Sgt James Gill at the sentence hearing. Shouts of “scumbag” were heard as McDonnell was led away by prison officers. Both young women wept and were embraced by their parents at the sentence hearing two weeks ago, as harrowing details of the assaults were read out by Deirdre Murphy SC, prosecuting. The court had heard that the girls had developed a habit of watching children’s cartoons on a TV in the lounge area of the pub where he worked after school. It was there, in a secluded area of the lounge, that McDonnell first approached them. There were emotional scenes as Ms Murphy detailed the “increasingly bold” and “depraved” nature and frequency of McDonnell’s attacks on the girls, “two to three times a week for a year”. The court also heard that throughout, McDonnell had threatened the girls to keep the abuse a secret and would regularly give them sweets and soft drinks. Ms Murphy described the offences as being on the upper end of the scale of seriousness and asked Mr Justice Sheehan to take into account the girls’ young age, the depraved nature and frequency of the attacks and the fact McDonnell abused both girls simultaneously. Outside court yesterday the young women said they did not feel McDonnell had been given an appropriate sentence.