November 2013

Paedo who raped me only served 6 years and now he’s out

It’s only been four weeks since Patrick Kavanagh walked out the gate of Arbour Hill prison.

He was jailed in 2007 for raping a little girl from the age of eight until she was 12, when by chance his phone and text messages to her were discovered.

That little girl is now a 20-year-old woman who decided this week to tell her story to the Sunday World out of her fear that he could turn up at her doorstep.

“It’s just the fact that he can get out and move to Dublin where nobody knows him and be normal… probably go and meet someone and do it again,” she said.

There has been no official contact from any State service to let her know that the man who stole her childhood is free and back on the streets.

“If it had come up in a couple of months or a year that he did it again and I had done nothing about it, it would just kill me,” she said.

Now in his forties, Kavanagh put on a dramatic show of remorse in 2007 after pleading guilty to 53 charges, including raping the girl.

He said that he would “gladly take” the death penalty if that had been an option to the judge. Instead, the judge sentenced him to eight years and last month, after serving six years, the paedophile was released from prison.

Kavanagh’s remorseful claims from the witness box that he hoped whatever sentence he got would bring closure to the victim and her family doesn’t cut any ice with her.

“I just don’t believe him,” she said.

Over four years, Kavanagh, originally from Bunclody, Co. Wexford, had manipulated the young girl and carried out multiple sex attacks on her.

The abuse was discovered when she was 12 after her mother by chance discovered messages and texts Kavanagh had sent to her.

“My auntie came in and took me that night to her house. My ma just couldn’t take what had actually happened. We sat up for hours, she asked me what had happened and all the details,” she said.

“The next morning, she brought me down to the Garda station. I was so nervous. I was so young then, I didn’t understand. I almost felt like I was after doing something wrong.”

Her mother had to be there when she gave her statement to the Gardaí, giving the exact details of the rapes.

“That was the first time I had to tell everything in front of her and that was the hardest thing I’ve ever had to do,” she said.

Since Kavanagh was jailed, she admits she “bottled up” everything, but when she heard through her aunt that Kavanagh was due for release, she became deeply upset.

Although she had been offered counselling, she had never taken it up because she had thought everything would be said back to her mother.

“Only a couple of months ago I just got so depressed, I was so down all the time – I spoke to my auntie and she put me through to someone,” she said.

The fear that she could suddenly be confronted by Kavanagh is something that troubles the young woman. 

“If I was to see him, I don’t know what I’d do. He could approach me, try to talk to me, I don’t know. I think it’s not knowing that’s getting to me,” she told the Sunday World.

His release has left her depressed and her excitement about starting a new college course has faded away.

“To me what he got was not nearly enough, but everyone I’ve spoken to, including my counsellor, are saying I’m so lucky to have got that. Some only get a year or two,” she said.

At the Central Criminal Court in 2007, Patrick Kavanagh pleaded guilty to eight sample charges of rape and anal rape of the victim from 2002 to 2006.

A detective told the court that Kavanagh had gone to the Gardaí voluntarily when he heard the allegations had been made against him.

He repeatedly replied “I’m guilty” during interviews and said that the victim’s claims were true.

Judge Paul Carney directed that Kavanagh be registered as a sex offender and that he undergo five years of post-release supervision.

A victim impact statement prepared by a psychiatrist at the time said his victim was still suffering mentally. It also predicted, correctly, that she might continue to suffer psychologically in the future.

Like so many victims of sex abuse, the young woman faces an uncertain future. That uncertainty has not been eased by not knowing where Kavanagh has gone or whether he’ll be able to offend again.