By Gordon Deegan
Copyright irishmirror
A judge has stated that there is no question currently of a Co Clare father, who performed a solo sex act in front of onlookers in a swimming pool changing room, securing overnight access to his young son.
At the Family Law Court, Judge Alec Gabbett made his comment as he approved a schedule of supervised access of the man with his son during the day.
The access is to be supervised by an agency specialising in the area.
Judge Gabbett told the man: “You are being tarred with this brush and everyone is entitled to redemption but you have to prove yourself.”
The man told the court “I want to be a good father to my son. I know I haven’t seen much of him.”
In 2022, the man escaped jail at Ennis District Court when he pleaded guilty to exposing his genitals and engaging in an act of masturbation at the Clare County Council owned and managed Active Ennis Leisure Complex at Sandfield Road, Ennis on January 30 2020.
In March 2022, Judge Mary Larkin told Ennis District Court that there was “an element of perversion” in the offence and imposed a 12 month Probation Bond on the accused.
At the family law court, the man’s ex-partner stated that in 2019, he was a sports coach and sent nude pictures which resulted in Gardai raiding their home.
The woman said that in the aftermath of that incident they split up and she also highlighted the swimming pool changing room offence to Judge Gabbett during the hearing over access for the child.
Judge Gabbett told the child’s mother that her fears over access “stem from previous incidents”.
In court, the man apologised to his partner for the stress his past actions have caused her.
Judge Gabbett said that he had a report before court that showed that the man is diagnosed as being over sexualised.
Judge Gabbett said that “this is a man who has a compulsion to engage in over sexualised behaviour and he can’t stop himself from doing certain things when the compulsion arises”.
Judge Gabbett said: “He is getting help as best he can.”
Solicitor, Monica Roche for the man told Judge Gabbett: “He is happy with supervised access- he just wants to spend more time with his son.”
Judge Gabbett said that there is no question of the man obtaining overnight access with his son currently.
He told the man: “There will never be an overnight unless I have a complete re-assurance from a doctor that you have attended to your situation.”
Judge Gabbett said: “I couldn’t take that risk at the moment. The best thing you could be doing is keep going to see that doctor and keep doing whatever they say. They say that you are on the right track and you have done a lot of work with them.”
Judge Gabbett said that the key takeaway is that the man can’t expose himself to situations that could lead him to being denied access to his son.
Approving a schedule of supervised access between father and son, Judge Gabbett said that this is a case “that is screaming out for proper supervised access so that the man’s behaviour can be reported on”.
Judge Gabbett said that the son “is out of nappies and bearing in mind what we have heard, how do you get over toileting at the supervised access?”.
The mother said she could be close by during the supervised access if toileting arises. She said: “I have to do it. He would be more comfortable that I am there.”
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