Abuse victim reported 1970s paedophile assaults after seeing news of other convictions

A “monster” paedophile serving nine years for sexually abusing his daughter and sister-in-law is facing additional prison time after pleading guilty to abusing another girl who decades later alerted gardaí after reading about his previous crimes.At Limerick Circuit Criminal Court, Christopher O’Mahony was unmasked as a serial sex offender who abused a third victim, then a young girl, on two dates in the 1970s.O’Mahony (68), of Kerrykyle, Ardagh, Co Limerick, showed no emotion as details of the sex assaults were heard at a sentence hearing on Thursday.The victim, who did not wish to be named but asked the court that O’Mahony be identified, was aged between five and 12 years when O’Mahony abused her.READ MOREProsecuting barrister Lily Buckley told the court the victim contacted gardaí about O’Mahony having sexually abused her 54 years ago, after she last year read court reports regarding his other convictions. Buckley said reporting restrictions had also been lifted in the previous case after O’Mahony’s daughter and sister-in-law had waived their right to anonymity so O’Mahony could be publicly named.Det Garda James Muldowney of the Divisional Protective Services Unit at Henry Street Garda station in Limerick told the court he visited O’Mahony at Midlands Prison several months ago and put the fresh allegations to him.O’Mahony initially denied the claims but eventually pleaded guilty to two counts of indecently assaulting the girl when he was returned for trial on May 28th.Buckley said O’Mahony first targeted the girl, who was aged five or six, while she was asleep.O’Mahony was partially interrupted when another child sleeping in the same bed woke up.“She had an overwhelming panic, she told him she was going to shout and (raise the alarm) and he left.”Buckley said that in another incident, O’Mahony had leered at the girl’s chest when she was aged about 11 or 12, and told her, “Oh my god, you’re developing”. Buckley said the victim did not wish to have her victim impact statement read aloud in court. The victim, she said, had suffered extensive and serious mental health difficulties as a direct result of the abuse.The victim was “terrified” of O’Mahony and remained silent about the abuse for 54 years until she read the previous court reports.“It sparked something in her to come forward, and after seeing the article she felt she had to go to the gardaí, and she did.”O’Mahony’s barrister Patrick Whyms asked the court to consider that his client would be 74 when he finished serving his current term.The court heard O’Mahony had entered an early guilty plea, had worked for the most part of his life and that he had already been placed on the sex offenders’ register for life.Judge Mary Morrissey remanded O’Mahony in custody to finalise his sentence on November 19th.Speaking after he was jailed last year, Emma O’Shaughnessy described her abusive father as a “monster” and said the abuse had left her feeling “like maggots were crawling under my skin”.