An 82-year-old man has been jailed for two years for having sexual intercourse with a woman suffering from progressive dementia after he was caught in the woman’s bed by her husband.
Brendan Rogan (82), of 42 the Demesne, Longford, appeared before Longford Circuit Court after pleading guilty to a sexual act with a protected person on the grounds of recklessness.
At a sentence hearing before Judge Kenneth Connolly, it was heard that Mr Rogan, who was 77 at the time of the commission of the offence, had engaged in sexual intercourse with his 55-year-old victim on dates unknown between December 1, 2019, and March 26, 2020.
The victim had been diagnosed at an early age with frontotemporal dementia and was not in a fit state to consent to the sexual intercourse, the court heard.
It was on March 26, 2020, at 10.05am that Gardaí responded to a call from the injured party’s husband who outlined that, upon his return to his home, he had encountered his wife in the bedroom of the house with the accused, partially clothed.
The injured party’s husband had been out of the house for approximately 20 minutes and, when he returned, he found his wife in bed with the accused’s arms around her back. Mr Rogan was wearing a shirt and his underpants were down. The injured party was wearing a top but her pyjama pants and incontinence pants were down.
The injured party outlined to Gardaí that she was friendly with the accused’s wife and that Mr Rogan had told her to call him when the house was empty.
On the morning in question, she was in the sitting room with the accused man before they proceeded to the bedroom, where Mr Rogan asked her to remove her pants. She also told Gardaí that Mr Rogan had had sex with her three or four times in the space of a few months.
In her statement, she said she had rang Mr Rogan that morning because he had told her to tell him when there was nobody in the house. He came over shortly afterwards.
“He gave me a kiss and said ‘come on, let’s go upstairs’,” she said.
“He took his bottoms off and took my pyjama trousers off and took one leg out of my special pants. I told him to leave me alone.
“He told me not to tell anyone. I felt sick about that. I feel sick since (my husband) came in and caught him, but I’m glad about that,” she told Gardaí.
The woman’s daughter also gave a statement to Gardaí in which she said she had been in touch with Mr Rogan and asked him not to contact her mother.
She said she was concerned for her mother’s welfare and had deleted Mr Rogan’s number out of her phone on several occasions.
Mr Rogan, when interviewed by Gardaí, said that there was very little conversation between himself and the victim, that she had never indicated to him that she desired sexual intercourse, but that he had “simply read between the lines”.
When asked whether or not he thought something was wrong when he saw the victim was wearing incontinence pants, he said “she didn’t seem to be worried about it” and that she “didn’t complain”.
A letter of apology read out to the victim’s family in court indicated that Mr Rogan wished to apologise “sincerely and unreservedly” for his behaviour.
“I now realise how much I hurt you and your family by being reckless,” he said, adding that he was “utterly remorseful” and “I made a big mistake”.
The victim’s daughter, reading a victim impact statement in court last week, said her mother relied on a steady stream of family and carers to keep her fed, washed and safe and that she was rarely left alone. On this occasion, she was less than an hour on her own.
“We thought the main dangers came in the form of falls or maybe scalds from hot water. Only in our worst nightmares did we think that someone would victimise a woman so obviously unwell in a sexual way,” she said.
“Sadly, Brendan Rogan and his perverted actions awoke us from that naivety. My mother’s life was changed immeasurably by Brendan Rogan's deviant actions. We, her family, were left feeling guilty that we couldn’t protect her, and we were forced to concede that our desire to keep her in her own home as long as possible was not realistic because, despite our best efforts, Brendan Rogan’s assault on her burst that bubble of safety and caused her harm in that very home.”
The family were left with no choice but to enter her into a nursing home at the age of 56 and “our hearts broke for her all over again”, she said.
Passing judgement this afternoon, Judge Connolly said that, although Mr Rogan’s advanced age was of primary consideration to the court in sentencing, and he came before the court with no previous convictions, this was “exceptionally serious offending”.
“This was a crime of utter repulsion to any norm of understanding,” he said.
“This was an utterly despicable breach of trust, especially in circumstances where the victim’s daughter had gone out of her way to ask that he not contact her mother.
“He disrespected her in disregarding her wishes and he disrespected her mother by subjecting her to this utterly gross behaviour,” he said.
He noted that this was not a one-off offence and he didn’t accept that Mr Rogan didn’t know there was anything wrong with the victim.
He proceeded to sentence Mr Rogan to four years in prison. When considering suspending a portion of the sentence, he noted that many would see it as no benefit to society to imprison an 82-year-old man.
“I however take the view that this crime is simply too heinous and repulsive to avoid a custodial element,” he said, opting to suspend only the final two years of the sentence.
“I have to say I regret having to impose an immediate custodial sentence but I would be letting the victim down if I didn’t,” he concluded.
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