Irish Daily Star

8 Man is jailed over the ‘vile’ abuse of his three sisters

CORONER ADMITS ALCOHOL LEVEL CONTRIBUTE­D

THREE sisters have described their older brother as a “vile human being, a bully, a monster and pure evil” after he was jailed for abusing them in the 70s.

The Central Criminal Court heard that Martin Davis (67) of Churchill, Clifden, Co Galway, was found guilty of one count of rape and eight counts of indecent assault on unknown dates between 1971 and 1981 at an address in Letterfrac­k in Co Galway. Davis has no previous conviction­s.

The judge said aggravatin­g factors in the case were the abuse of three siblings over a prolonged period of time and the breach of trust.

It amounted to the vile betrayal of his sibling and the breach of trust of his parents.

Ms Justice Greally jailed Davis for eight years and backdated it to when he went into custody.

Bully

called to the scene and found waitress Brid Sweeney performing CPR on Mr Duggan.

Officer Ferry said an obstructio­n was removed from the patient, which he thought was a piece of garlic bread.

Paramedics continued to work on the victim and cardiac drugs were administer­ed while no shock was advised from a defibrilla­tor at the scene.

The dead man’s brother, Columba Duggan, told how he had been called to the pub and identified the victim as being that of his brother Noel at 8.42pm.

Garda Dermot Gallen of Dungloe Garda Station said he received a report of a choking incident at a public house in Loughanure at 7.10pm.

He said he went to the scene and spoke to Mr Ferry, an advanced paramedic, who said their efforts to revive Mr Duggan had been unsuccessf­ul.

Garda Gallen said he had obtained CCTV footage from the scene and agreed with coroner Dr McCauley’s assessment that this was simply an unfortunat­e choking and that there was nothing else to it.

The Garda said the body was removed from the scene at 9.10pm and was taken to the mortuary at Letterkenn­y University Hospital.

Disease

Pathologis­t Dr Gerry O’Dowd said an autopsy on Mr Duggan showed he had multiple small haemorrhag­es on both lungs, which is consistent with death from asphyxiati­on.

The autopsy showed the victim only had one kidney while he was also suffering from coronary artery disease and was being treated for high blood pressure.

Tests also showed Mr Duggan had an alcohol reading of 249mg of alcohol, which coroner Dr McCauley noted was five times the drink-driving level.

Dr McCauley commented “This was an accident but that level of alcohol made it more likely to happen.”