LEO McFarland leaves court
A bus driver has pleaded guilty to 11 charges of sexual assault against two sisters during which he tricked them into playing ‘sweet games’ while he abused them.
Leo McFarland had originally pleaded not guilty to a total fo 53 charges against sisters Cathy and Caroline Brady in Carndonagh when they were children for two years between 1983 and 1985.
Brave Cathy, who now lives in Derry, had wept as she had given evidence on the first day of the trial.
However McFarland, a 57 year old father-of-five, dramatically changed his plea and admitted to eleven of the charges against the women.
The sisters addressed Letterkenny Circuit Court and said they would like to waive their anonymity in order for McFarland to be identified.
The women were indecently assaulted by McFarland in the kitchen of his home in Carndonagh and in his mini-bus during the 1980s.
The two girls were assaulted when one was aged between 5 and 7 years and the other between 7 and 9 years.
McFarland was a neighbour of the victims at the time on Convent Road, Carndonagh and was friendly with the two victims and their family.
The first woman revealed how the alleged attacker would assault her in his kitchen while her sister waited outside in the hall.
Cathy Brady fought back tears as she revealed how she has turned to drink and also tried to take her own life as a result of the alleged attacks.
“He would ask us to look for sets in his pocket. There would be a whole (in his trouser pocket). He would say ‘move about more and more and squeeze and look for it’. It was his penis. There was never sweets.
“That happened every two to three days. It was on a regular basis. He would then go to the press and get the sweets. They were never in his pockets.”
She also revealed how McFarland preyed upon her in a vehicle and would sexually interfere with her by inserting his finger into her vagina and her back passage.
She told her mother of the attacks and her mother then spoke with her daughters’ attacker.
McFarland and his family moved from the area a number of months later.
Cathy Brady said she did not inform the Gardai for a number of years as she was friendly with some of the man’s daughters.
She initially went to Gardai in 2008 but said she did not have the courage to go ahead with the complaint but reactivated her statement in 2010.
Judge John O’Hagan ordered that McFarland, who now lives Oak Grove, Millfield, Buncrana, be placed on the sex offenders register and adjourned the case until the next sitting of the circuit court in April.
He also asked for the victims to prepare a victim impact report and offered them to come forward and give those reports.
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