A 73-year-old grandfather who sexually abused a number of young girls in his neighbourhood over an almost 20-year period has been jailed for four years by Judge Patricia Ryan at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court.

Thomas Harman abused the children during neighbourhood games of hide and seek, during “driving lessons” or visits to his home. He exploited one child’s love of dogs to create opportunities to abuse her during walks.

Harman was urged by the eldest of his victims, as she gave evidence of the impact the abuse had on her life, to look at his hands and think about how many lives they had destroyed.

Harman, with an address at Abbey Grove, Navan, Co. Meath, and formerly of Arthur Griffin Park, Lucan, pleaded guilty to sample eight counts of indecent assault and two sample counts of sexual assault against three sisters and a fourth girl on dates between 1975 and 1993.

The girls were aged between five and eight years old when the assaults on them began in their Dublin neighbourhood and they were each abused over a period of between two and half years and five years.

The eldest victim, now a 42-year-old woman, described how she had scrubbed her skin raw in a bath of Dettol as a 12-year-old and also turned to self harm in an attempt to deal with the abuse.

She described her guilt at not speaking out about the abuse and finding out that Harman had moved onto her younger sisters. “Abuse is not like a broken leg or arm and takes a lifetime to heal” she told Harman, “I will never forgive you for causing so much pain in my life.”

Her younger sister, now aged 30, said in her victim impact statement which was read to the court, that Harman had robbed her of her innocence as a five-year-old and described how she used to pray she wouldnot have to go out and play.

She said she remembered little of her teenage years when she had turned to drugs because of the “hurt and pain.”

The youngest sister, now aged 25, described feeling “ashamed and dirty” after the abuse and said she had started abusing solvents at a young age to escape her feelings. She accepted Harman had pleaded guilty but said she could not have a second childhood.

The fourth complainant, now aged 39, said she suffered from depression as well as having trust and relationship difficulties. She said she left the neighborhood as soon as she was old enough and had lived with the guilt that she could have prevented someone else being abused.

Judge Patricia Ryan said that the fact that offences had occurred over a long period of time and that Harman had been in a position of trust and authority warranted a custodial sentence.

She imposed concurrent sentences totaling four years and ordered that he be placed on the sex offenders' register for a period of 10 years.

Detective Garda Gabrielle Newton told Ms Caroline Biggs SC, that Harman had abused the girls in his own home, in the Phoenix Park and in his parents' home in Harolds Cross. He also joined in neighbourhood games of “hide and seek” and abused the children as they hid alone.

Det Gda Newton said Harman, who has no previous convictions, was arrested after the eldest complainant made a statement to gardaí in 1999. He denied the offences.

Defence counsel, Mr Sean Gillane, said he did not wish to minimize the incidents or their horrific impact. He said Harman was originally from Rathmines and had worked for a time in the United Kingdom as a young man.

Mr Gillane said Harman was now a grandfather and cared for his ill wife as well as running the family home. Harman has his own health difficulties such as diabetes and asthma.

He said Harman had, through his own actions, brought irreparable damage on his own reputation and was now becoming a “pariah".