Eimear Dodd
A former tattoo and piercing parlour owner has been jailed for eight years for the separate sexual assaults of two women and a teenage girl while they were clients of his business.
Paul Kelleher (61) of Esker Gate, Mountmellick, Co. Laois was convicted of three counts of sexual assault following a trial at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court earlier this year.
His offending took place at Newfaze Ink, in Portlaoise on dates between August and December 2015 and in January 2018.
Two of the victims were receiving piercings when Kelleher sexually assaulted them. The third victim – who was 14 at the time – was having a piercing cleaned when Kelleher sexually assaulted her.
Kelleher was handed a sentence of nine years, with the final 12 months suspended on strict conditions.
He maintains his innocence, and after the sentence was imposed, Kelleher addressed the court to say he would be changing his legal team.
The court heard that the three victims wish for Kelleher to be named. In their victim impact statements, the complainants spoke of the profound effect of Kelleher’s offending on their lives, including a lack of trust in male professionals, particularly men working in medical fields.
The three women each said they found the trial process difficult. One woman said she felt she was made to look “either a liar or stupid” and found it “degrading” to give evidence during the trial and in front of Kelleher.
In her impact statement, the third woman, who was sexually abused when she was 14, said her “teenage years were taken from me” and her “happy, innocent childhood was changed in an instant”.
She said while the fear and hurt would never leave her, she was determined that Kelleher would not affect more of her life.
Kelleher was the joint owner and operator of the tattoo and piercing business. When interviewed, he denied the allegations. He gave evidence on his own behalf during the trial, during which he also denied wrongdoing.
Kelleher’s wife claimed in her evidence that she was present when the first victim was being pierced, and nothing happened. She didn’t tell gardaí this when she was interviewed, the court was told.
He has two previous convictions, including one for sexual assault in similar circumstances for which he received a four-year sentence, with the final two years suspended.
Patrick McCarthy BL, defending, asked the court to take into consideration his client’s personal circumstances and the contents of a psychological report. Kelleher has three adult children.
Kelleher served in the Defence Forces and was deployed to Lebanon in 1983. After leaving the army, he lived and worked in the UK before returning to Ireland in 2000.
Kelleher’s wife has a number of health issues, and his absence is causing difficulties, Mr McCarthy told the court.
Imposing sentence, Judge Pauline Codd said Kelleher’s previous conviction for similar offending was aggravating, as well as the “significant breach of trust involved” in these offences.
The judge also noted the age disparity between Kelleher and his three victims, noting that he was old enough to be the grandfather of the teenage victim, who the judge added, was too young to have received a piercing in the first instance.
Judge Codd said Kelleher “abused his position of trust” and then attempted to “gaslight” the victims about what had happened. She noted that Kelleher maintains his innocence, as is his right, but that meant he had expressed no remorse and offered no apology to the victims.
The judge said she had considered the mitigation and the contents of a psychological report. Judge Codd noted that Kelleher appeared to suggest in this report that the allegations were made out of jealousy about his business’s success. She said the three women came forward independently and there was no evidence to support his contention, adding that Kelleher appears to be “wholly in denial”.
The judge handed Kelleher three consecutive sentences of three years. She suspended the final year of the global nine-year sentence on the condition that Kelleher attends counselling to reduce his risk of sexual re-offending.
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