A former long-serving member of the Irish Defence Forces has been jailed for sexually assaulting his young sister in the mid-1980s and for assault causing harm to his former partner last year.
Derek Delaney (60) retired from the army last summer after 43 years of service, including five tours of duty to the Lebanon.
He pleaded guilty earlier this year to the indecent assault of his sister on a date unknown between October 1982 and December 1988 at an address on Bunratty Road, Coolock, Dublin 17.
Delaney was in his early 20s at the time, and his sister, 11 years his junior, was between nine and eleven.
Delaney’s sister, Ms Jackie Gardiner, has waived her anonymity in order to allow her brother be named.
Delaney, of Montpelier Hill, Dublin 7, further admitted assault causing harm to his former partner on July 2nd last at Common Manor, Seatown Road, Swords.
In a ruling on Thursday at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court, Judge Martin Nolan sentenced Delaney to 20 months in prison for indecent assault and to a concurrent sentence of 15 months for assault causing harm.
Judge Nolan said Delaney had taken advantage of his sister in what was, for her, a very frightening incident that has marred her life from that date.
The judge set a headline sentence of two to four years but reduced it based on mitigating factors, including Delaney’s long history of work and service to the State.
The court heard that Ms Gardiner first reported the indecent assault to the gardaí in August 2022, as she wanted to wait until after the death of her father, to whom she was very close.
Victim impact statement
In a victim impact statement read on her behalf, Ms Gardiner said she was glad that justice had been done, adding, “It’s a weight off me.”
Ms Gardiner said her brother had destroyed her life. “I was called a liar by my family for many years. I got threats. I was told I destroyed the family – he destroyed the family,” she said.
Ms Gardiner said that after she was sexually assaulted by her brother, she tried to “block it out” for many years, but that it was always there and caused her to suffer with her mental health.
“It always set me back. It made me nervous around men if I didn’t know them,” she said.
When she was 19, Ms Gardiner’s friend suffered a similar experience, which triggered her own memories of being abused.
In her statement to the court, she detailed how she tried a number of times to take her own life, including overdosing and trying to hang herself in the bathroom.
Ms Gardiner said she remembers ringing Delaney in 2011 and telling him: “You’ll never get away with what you’ve done. You’ve destroyed me.”
Detective Garda Michael McCabe told George Burns BL, prosecuting, that Ms Gardiner went to gardaí to lodge a complaint in August 2022.
She said that she was nine years old, and her brother was 11 years older than her when she was sexually assaulted in an upstairs bedroom of the family home.
Ms Gardiner said she couldn’t recall the exact details and had blocked it out, but that her brother had asked her to go to the bed, and she went. She said he was rubbing on her, and she experienced pain in her genitals.
Delaney was arrested in February last year and gave a detailed account of what had happened when he returned from his first tour of duty in Lebanon in 1985.
He told gardaí he thought he was on top of his sister moving up and down, but that, as far as he remembered, he never had sexual intercourse with her.
Delaney has one previous conviction, also for indecent assault, dating back to February 7th, 1985. The court heard that Delaney was due to get married to his partner of 17 years when he assaulted her after a night out on July 2nd last year.
The court heard that the woman went to Swords Garda Station and reported that she had been headbutted twice and knocked unconscious by Delaney after an argument.
Gardaí noticed a large bruise on her forehead, the court heard. Delaney was arrested shortly after 2am but deemed unfit for questioning due to intoxication.
He said the reason for the argument was “jealousy”, adding: “I don’t be happy when she talks to fellas and vice versa.”
He admitted headbutting her on the forehead but said it wasn’t full force and denied that he had knocked her unconscious. “She wasn’t out cold. I know her; she acts it up,” he said but agreed that she had been afraid of him.
The woman submitted a victim impact report, which was not read aloud, and the court heard the couple broke up after this offence.
Delaney has two daughters and a stepson with the woman.
The prosecuting Garda agreed with counsel for the defence that Delaney was drinking heavily at the time and under stress due to the allegations that had been made by his sister.
Maurice Coffey SC, defending, noted the brevity of Ms Gardiner’s evidence and said Delaney had filled in a lot of the details.
He said Delaney was left incredibly bereft after his relationship ended with the woman whom he described as “the love of my life”.
Mr Coffey said his client got his first job working a paper round at the age of seven and then worked continually until his retirement from the army last summer.
Delaney joined the army in 1981 and went on his first trip to the Lebanon in 1982.
The court heard that Delaney was only in Lebanon a matter of hours when three of his colleagues were shot dead by another Irish soldier at a checkpoint near the Israeli border on October 27, 1982.
Mr Coffey said Delaney was one of the first on the scene of the murders and that it had been traumatic for him. The court heard that Delaney was also briefly taken hostage while in the Lebanon, and suffered from PTSD.
Counsel said that Delaney did not come to Garda attention for 40 years and suffered a heart attack in 2018.
Delaney has numerous health problems, the court heard, including diabetes, high blood pressure, and high cholesterol. He is also being investigated in Beaumont Hospital in relation to Parkinsons’ Disease.
The court heard Delaney apologised to gardaí for indecently assaulting his sister and for assaulting his former partner and was embarrassed and ashamed about both offences.
Mr Coffey said the indecent assault was a “gross breach of trust” of his sister but pointed out that there was no allegation of violence or threats.
