THE former leader and child protection officer of an award winning Co Down accordion band wept in court yesterday as he was jailed for 15 months for sexually abusing two young girls.
Jailing 75-year-old Liam Patrick Rafferty at Newtownards Crown Court, Judge Geoffrey Millar QC said numerous aggravating features to his offending included the fact of “deliberate isolation” and grooming of the victims “to perpetrate the repeated offending.”
Judge Millar told Rafferty that, as the leader of the St Miguel Accordion band in Downpatrick, he had been held in “high regard” in his community and with a high degree of trust so “the breach of the trust reposed in him was all the greater.”
At the end of his two week trial last June Rafferty, from Mary Street in Downpatrick, was convicted by the jury of seven counts of sexual activity with a girl aged 13-16 and two counts of sexually assault against two young victims on dates between July 21 2012 and January 11 2016.
Reminding the court yesterday of the evidence heard at the trial, prosecuting counsel Laura Ievers described how Rafferty had been giving private music lessons to the victims in his home when there were repeated incidents of kissing and inappropriate touching.
Taking each victim in turn, Mrs Ievers recounted how Rafferty was convicted on three counts of sexual activity with a child in relation to the first victim who was aged between 13 and 14 years-old when she was abused.
There was also an element of grooming by Rafferty in that he had sent the girl numerous messages on social media where he used “terms on affection” and offered her a gift of a printer.
The second victim, she told the court, was aged between 14 and 16 years-old when Rafferty abused her by kissing her on the lips and “rubbing her leg” when she was having music lessons.
“He told her that he loved her and offered to take her to Dublin,” said Mrs Ievers, adding that at one stage, Rafferty’s wife saw her husband touching the girls leg and confronted him about it.
Arrested and interviewed in 2016, Rafferty denied any wrongdoing and gave evidence on his own behalf before the jury maintaining his innocence and the court heard yesterday that while he “accepts the jury’s verdicts,” he still claims to be innocent.
While Rafferty has a clear record and has “significant health issues,” there was however “an absence of remorse” on his part, submitted Mrs Ievers.
Defence counsel Chris Holmes said that as a result of health problems, “he is going to find a custodial sentence more difficult than perhaps an average defendant and that as the main carer for his “extremely ill” wife, “incarceration of her husband is going to significantly effect her.”
He said from the evidence at the trial, “it became clear to the court” that over the years, Rafferty had been in “close personal contact with tens of thousands, certainly thousands, of young people and we have ended up in this case with two victims.”
“Throughout the years he was working in the community, doing a huge amount of good and he has destroyed that completely,” conceded Mr Holmes adding that Rafferty had “utterly destroyed an impeccable reputation.”
Rafferty will also spend 15 months on supervised licence on his release and will be subject to a five year Sexual Offences Prevention Order.
