A FORMER school caretaker who tricked a young child into performing a sex act on the pretence of a game has been jailed for two years.
Sentencing 60-year-old Mark Gerard Cole, Judge Kevin Finnegan said he hoped the end of the case "will give some measure of closure" to his victim, who is now in her 20s.
Cole, originally from Thomas Street in Warrenpoint but whose address was given as c/o Magilligan prison, pleaded guilty to 10 counts of indecent assault between July 1997 and July 2001, when the woman would have been between four and seven years old.
Prosecuting lawyer Fiona O'Kane said she "gained the fortitude to come forward" in December 2014 after reading how her tormentor had been jailed for sexually abusing three other girls.
Cole, who was formerly a caretaker at St Mark's High School in Warrenpoint, had been handed a two-year prison sentence after pleading guilty to 19 counts of indecent assault between 1990 and 1999.
In court on Thursday, Mrs O'Kane said while not minimising those offences, the abuse he carried out "was not as grave" as the current case.
She said Cole's "extremely young and vulnerable" victim had to endure a sex act while blindfolded and tricked into believing they were playing a game.
Some of the charges against him were sample counts to represent that repeated course of conduct.
Cole confessed during police interviews and pleaded guilty when he was first arraigned.
Mrs O'Kane said while she accepted he was assessed as of medium risk of reoffending but not dangerous, he had caused a "high degree" of harm to his victim and the offences represented a breach of trust.
Defence barrister Kevin Magill said Cole had expressed "genuine remorse and empathy" for his victim and wished to do "everything that's required of him" to try to rebuild his life again.
As well as the jail term, which Judge Finnegan said was in effect a consecutive sentence to his previous offences, Cole must serve a further three years on probation.
He was also ordered to sign the police sex offenders register for 10 years and made subject to a Sexual Offences Prevention Order for the same period.
