A Longford man who “relied on his family’s reputation in order to perpetuate the abuse” of a ten-year-old girl he sexually assaulted in 2019 has been jailed for five and a half years.
Niall McGowan (32), of Newtownforbes, Co Longford, appeared before a sitting of Longford Circuit Court, having been found guilty of five counts of sexual assault on the ten-year-old girl, at his residence.
Over the course of four days, a jury heard evidence of how the accused held a position of trust with the victim’s mother, which resulted in the young girl and her brother frequenting his family’s residence after school.
The incidents of sexual assault occurred on dates unknown between July 1, 2019 and March 31, 2020, and involved McGowan touching the girl’s breasts, vagina and backside, as well as four counts of digital penetration of her vagina.
In an emotional victim impact statement, read into the court record by Garda Inspector David Bunn, the victim, who is now a teenager, said that “it should be taken into consideration that Niall made me out to be a liar for years”.
“He gained my family’s trust and then he broke it in the worst possible way,” she said, adding that she wanted her abuser to be named because he had taken advantage of her and “I think everyone deserves to know what he is capable of.”
When passing judgement this week, Judge Kenneth Connolly noted that the crimes involved a “very significant breach of trust”.
“There is no doubt Niall McGowan relied on his family reputation in order to perpetuate this abuse. The family seem to be a thoroughly decent and respected family who have been in business for years,” he said.
“Niall McGowan seems to have fed off that, to say that ‘I too am a trustworthy person to be around your child’, and that turned out not to be the case.”
Judge Connolly noted that the abuse took place over a period of six or seven months. It persisted, he said, it was repeated on several occasions, and the gravity of the violation was high given the digital penetration.
“He was in a position of trust, of assumed respectability and responsibility, and he was in a position where the child’s mother should have been able to trust him,” he said. The victim's mother, he said, has “admonished herself and beaten herself up over this”, which he said “shouldn’t be allowed to happen”.
“You should be entitled to trust the people you’re leaving your children with. This is not your fault,” he stressed, adding that when that person proves not to be trustworthy, “that doesn’t fall on the parent, it falls on the perpetrator, in this case Niall McGowan, and it falls fairly and squarely upon him.”
He noted that the assaults were “opportunistic”, as the girl was on the property and available to him without constant supervision and, although there may not have been a degree of coercion prior to the events, there was a degree of coercion during.
“If she said it was hurting her, he’d go faster or say ‘be quiet or I’ll do worse’. I consider that to be threatening. There would be a threat of escalation or worse abuse if she wasn’t quiet,” said Judge Connolly.
While there was no “sinister kind of grooming”, he noted McGowan had portrayed himself as a fun person, even bringing the girl and her brother to see Santa at Christmas time and sending photographs to their mother.
Despite that, when Gardaí asked him if he could describe what the victim looked like, the accused man said “barely; I don’t know her”. He also told Gardaí he didn’t recall having any interactions with the victim’s mother, stating “I don’t know the woman”. However, he had often cut the woman’s grass and had even done DIY work in her home.
“It is an aggravating factor that he specifically said the girl was making this up or was lying. Then, of course, we have the conundrum of the interviews where he alleged he really didn’t know the family terribly well and wasn’t closely associated with them,” said Judge Connolly.
“Then we found out he was a handyman, had been in the family’s house and had a friendly relationship with the children. There was a closeness that had been denied and that certainly is an aggravating factor in my mind.”
The Director of Public Prosecutions deemed the offences to be at the higher end of the scale, attracting between nine and 14 years in prison. Judge Connolly, noting the fact that McGowan has no previous convictions, set a headline sentence of eight years on one of the five counts.
Other mitigating factors taken into account included the fact that, while on bail for a lengthy period of time, he complied with conditions and continued to work up to the day of his court hearing.
He has a good education, comes from a respectful family, has a loving wife and an excellent work history from when he left school. An “excellent” governor’s report was also furnished to the court but, as McGowan did not accept the jury verdict and maintains that he is innocent, no probation report was furnished.
Judge Connolly also noted the respectful conduct of McGowan’s family throughout the trial, though he said he would have liked to have heard “one single word of kindness” towards the victim’s family.
A number of character testimonies from a former employer, McGowan’s father, his uncle, sister, aunt, mother and wife, all spoke of a “highly developed individual” but “unfortunately, this was lurking in the background unbeknownst to them”.
Despite all of those factors, he said that, with no guilty plea, “mitigation is tempered” and he could only reduce the headline sentence of eight years to one of seven years, with “no question that it would be wholly suspended” as an “immediate custodial sentence is appropriate”.
As McGowan has no previous convictions and is “otherwise entirely pro-social”, he opted to give “some light at the end of the tunnel” in order to foster rehabilitation, while ensuring he serves an appropriate sentence.
He proceeded to suspend the final 18 months of the sentence for three years post-release on the condition he submits himself to the supervision of the probation office and follow all directions as regards offence-oriented courses.
There is to be no unsolicited contact with the injured party or her mother. He will also be placed on the sex offenders register.
The sentence was imposed on the fifth count on the indictment, with the balance of the counts taken into consideration with that penalty.
Judge Connolly also backdated the sentence to November 11, 2025, when McGowan was first remanded in custody.
