KEVIN MULCAHY, CORK DOCTOR, JAILED FOLLOWING APPEAL OVER INDECENT ASSAULT

In October 2016, Kevin Mulcahy, a Cork-based general practitioner, was sentenced to prison following an unsuccessful appeal related to a conviction for indecently assaulting a teenage girl 26 years earlier.

Mulcahy, 57, of Creggan, Lombardstown, Mallow, County Cork, had pleaded not guilty to a charge of indecently assaulting a 15-year-old girl at her family home on 23 December 1989, while on call.

After a retrial at Cork Circuit Criminal Court, a jury found him guilty after 39 minutes of deliberation. He was initially sentenced to two years in prison on 25 November 2015. Subsequently, Mulcahy was granted bail in December 2015 by the Court of Appeal while he appealed the conviction.

The conviction appeal was dismissed earlier this month. In his judgment on the matter, Mr. Justice John Edwards explained that Mulcahy had often visited the girl’s home to treat her mother, who was suffering from terminal cancer. During one of these visits, while examining the girl who had a head cold, Mulcahy indecently assaulted her.

Mulcahy was arrested in 2011 following a complaint and subsequently interviewed in relation to the allegations.

He had appealed his sentence, arguing that the sentencing judge did not adequately consider mitigating factors. The Court of Appeal agreed and quashed his original sentence. Mr. Justice Edwards noted that Mulcahy was a first-time offender of good character and acknowledged that he would face significant additional consequences—such as losing his livelihood and professional status—due to his conviction, which he described as "admittedly through his own fault." The judge also highlighted the impact on Mulcahy’s family, especially noting that he was the sole carer for his elderly father.

Eventually, Mr. Justice Edwards, sitting alongside Mr. Justice George Birmingham and Mr. Justice Alan Mahon, resentenced Mulcahy to 12 months in prison. Mr. Justice Birmingham advised Mulcahy that he was now on the sex offenders register and warned that failing to comply with registration obligations would constitute an offence.

Mulcahy was taken away to serve the remainder of his sentence, having served less than a month in custody before being granted bail by the Court of Appeal.