NORTHERN IRELAND CHILD ABUSE RING

April 2014 Evil mum who forced her son to watch her having sex with her brothers is jailed The mother at the head of the child abuse ring who cannot be named for legal reasons A prostitute who made some of her children watch as she had sex with clients has been sentenced to five years and eight months in prison.

The woman had pleaded guilty to cruelty, gross indecency and neglect.

Her four children suffered abuse, neglect and cruelty by their parents, two uncles and two other men dating back to the late 1970s.

The children’s father admitted a total of 17 counts of wilful neglect and cruelty by wilful assault.

He was sentenced to four years in jail.

To protect the children, none of the family can be identified.

Addressing the parents in the Crown Court in Belfast on Friday, the judge, Mr Justice Horner, said neither of them had been prepared to take responsibility for their actions.

“Your chilly indifference to your children’s welfare generally and your complicity in the sexually deviant behaviour you inflicted on [three of them] speaks of a heartless tormentor interested primarily in her own pleasures and enjoyment,” he told the mother.

“However I accept that you are not a predatory paedophile.

Not only are you pathetic, weak willed and inept, but you are also selfish and uncaring.” While a social worker at the time described her as “a warm and affectionate mother”, the judge said that she did not know of her sexual delinquency and the pain and hurt she must have inflicted on her young children.

She was assessed by a probation officer as “cold and callous” after she sought to blame her husband for what happened.

The judge told the father that he was guilty of neglect by leaving his children with a woman who was a chronic alcoholic and was incapable of caring for their needs.

The judge referred to a number of savage beatings that the man had inflicted on his children for “trivialities” such as stroking one of his dogs’ pups or getting sauce on a communion dress.

On occasions, one of the children was beaten so hard that she wet herself.

It was accepted, however, that the social worker did not see any signs of the children being physically abused.

Sentencing them, Mr Justice Horner said that historic sex abuse cases present courts with significant difficulty as the sentence must be based on the maximum sentence prescribed by legislation at the time the offence was committed.

In the period during which most of the offending took place in this case, the maximum sentence for child cruelty or indecent assault was two years imprisonment.

An uncle who admitted three counts of gross indecency and one count of indecent assault was sentenced to two years and nine months in jail.

Another uncle who admitted two counts of gross indecency, was sentenced to six months in prison suspended for two years.

Former police reservist Thomas Fitzpatrick, 53, (pictured below) formerly of Crewhill Gardens in Ardglass, County Down, but now with an address in Belfast, was convicted of indecent assault, gross indecency and common assault and was sentenced to 18 months in jail.

  Patrick Kilmartin, 59, a baker from Newcastle, County Down, and originally from Bryansford Gardens but now at another address in the town, was convicted of indecent assault and was sentenced to 12 months imprisonment.

Patrick Kilmartin pictured above had admitted his part in the crimes March 2014 A prostitute who made some of her children watch as she had sex with clients, one of whom was a police officer, has pleaded guilty to cruelty, gross indecency and neglect.

A mother of six who sexually abused her son during a childhood of fear and neglect is expected to be sentenced next week.

The 58-year-old has appeared in Belfast Crown Court with her ex-husband, two brothers and two former lovers, one an ex-RUC man.

The woman dressed in a red anorak and black jeans, had previously pleaded guilty to forcing her son to watching her have sex with her brothers and ex-RUC reserve Constable Thomas Fitzpatrick in the 1970s.

She also made the youngster put her breasts in his mouth during a period of abuse and neglect that started when he was four.

The Belfast court heard about a litany of horrific cruelty meted out to four of six siblings – one boy and his three younger sisters – by their own parents, uncles and others, including Fitzpatrick, 53, and a baker Patrick Kilmartin, 59.

The men visited the couple’s various Co Down houses which were chaotic, filthy and infested with rodents up to 30 years ago.

Prosecution said that one child was so neglected, she was left in a cot until she was two years old and could not walk or talk.

The court also heard details of a social worker’s report that said that the home was dirty, full of rubbish and the children were left starving.

The social worker also observed mouse droppings in a cereal box.

The mother was constantly drunk, it was alleged.

The judge also heard that one child, a ‘bed wetter’, was made to sleep on a heavily soiled mattress.

The prosecution barrister said the father subjected the children to multiple and brutal beatings, usually with a belt and sometimes around the head.

In one of the worst cases of its kind to come before the Crown Court in Northern Ireland, prosecuting QC Charles MacCreanor revealed how the youngsters lived in constant fear and suffered physical and sexual abuse, and neglect.

It started when they were tots in cots and lasted until 1986 when they were finally taken into care, the youngest aged eight and the oldest, 11.

Judge Mr Justice Horner heard how the mother sought to ‘educate’ her daughters, now in their 30s, about sex by making them watch her have intercourse with various men including her brothers.

She told them: “You’ll have to learn this.” The girls were not only subjected to sexual assaults and gross indecency, but were savagely beaten by their father over the years.

On two separate occasions they were beaten so hard and for so long that they wet themselves in fear.

All six accused, including Fitzpatrick, originally from Crewhill Gardens in Ardglass, and Kilmartin, originally from Bryansford Gardens in Newcastle, previously pleaded guilty to a total of 49 charges between them, dating back to the summer of 1977 to the spring of 1988.

The woman and her co-accused sat passively in the dock as they listened to the prosecution describe a plethora of abuse, assault and neglect meted out on her vulnerable children.

Described by defence counsel Brendan Kelly, as a woman of ‘impeccable character’, it is expected she will be sentenced by Mr Justice Horner next week.

The now-grown children’s mother faces the most charges, a total of 17 of cruelty and neglect and 23, involving six of sexual indecency.

She pleaded guilty to four counts of gross indecency where she forced her child to watch as she had sex with her brother and ex-police officer Thomas Fitzpatrick.

She also pleaded guilty to two counts of indecency where she forced her son to intimately touch her breasts.

The children’s two uncles pleaded guilty to charges of child sexual abuse.

The case continues on Tuesday when further pleas of mitigation on behalf of the other defendants will be given to the court.