A vile predator and convicted rapist who sexually assaulted three young girls in County Donegal has been jailed.
Louis Feeney, who has 85 previous convictions – for offences include rape and sexually assault – was handed a five-year prison sentence at Letterkenny Circuit Court.
The 74-year-old, with an address at Killowen Street, Coleraine, subjected the three girls to incidents that caused “very significant harm”.
Feeney, who was extradited from Northern Ireland in March, is also facing sentence later this year over a large consignment of drugs 20 years ago. A car in which Feeney was the lone occupant was intercepted and Gardai located 1840 grams of cocaine.
The drugs were worth €128,000 at the time and the court heard would now have a potential street value of €200,000. In June of this year, Feeney pleaded guilty to a charge of being in possession of controlled drugs for unlawful sale or supply.
Earlier in the year, Feeney – who has been in custody at Castlerea Prison since his arrest after being handed across the border by the PSNI – pleaded guilty to five sample counts of sexually assaulting young girls at various locations in Donegal.
Judge Maguire said the incidents had a “devastating impact” on the victims and continued to permeate and infect all aspects of their lives.
He said: “The harm done was very significant. The injured parties were very young and vulnerable, being of an age up to secondary school.
“Further sadness was the isolation they felt not knowing that the others were going through it.”
When a brother of a victim asked Feeney for sweets he said the boy’s sister would “have to do something for me”. The boy asked what he meant and Feeney told him: “She knows what I mean”. On another occasion, he offered a girl some money if she stayed where she was.
Judge Maguire, who commended the victims for the “powerful” impact statements submitted, said the assaults were predatory in nature and for Feeney’s sexual gratification.
Feeney has 85 previous convictions in Northern Ireland, including 23 relating to sexual crimes and some of which include sexual assault of a child. Feeney has also been convicted of rape and is on the Sex Offenders Register.
Judge Maguire said Feeney doesn’t appear to have anything near to full insight and protested at having a lack of memory.
Noting that the maximum penalty on each count was five years, Judge Maguire determined that a proportionate global headline sentence was one of five years.
He said that while Feeney did not cooperate in interviews, he did plead guilty. He said that Feeney was elderly “but not so old that he is immediately at risk of dying in prison”.
Having regard to the totality principle, Judge Maguire sentenced Feeney to five years in prison and said he was not suspending any portion.
At a sentencing hearing earlier in the week, Feeney asked that he be able to attend via video link for the judgement. However, he was hauled before the court and stood in the dock to hear Judge Maguire deliver his judgement after the court consulted with the victims.
In total, Feeney was charged with nine counts of sexual assault against three victims in Donegal on dates between 1993 and 2005. Feeney pleaded guilty to five counts on a full facts basis, while the other counts were taken into consideration.
Detective Garda Robin Doyle outlined the case to State barrister Ms Fiona Crawford BL.
One of the complainants told how she was 10 years old when one of the incidents occurred. Feeney placed his hand down her trousers and inside her underwear, touching her private parts with his hands. The court heard that the incident “lasted for a few minutes”.
The complainant told Gardai that it “was weird” and recalled Feeney smelling of body odour and cigarettes.
Another incident occurred at a time when the complainant was in secondary school. She recalled how Feeney rubbed her underwear before placing his hand inside. She told him to stop and he did not say anything in response, but continued to sexually assault her.
Detective Garda Doyle told Ms Crawford that the complainant recalled being at another location when Feeney approached her from behind and placed his hand down the front of her trousers while “rubbing himself against me”.
“He didn’t talk or anything,” she told Gardai.
She said that Feeney would get “quite crabbit” if questioned and he would always carry on as if nothing happened.
This complainant also outlined how Feeney rubbed himself up against her at another location and then placed his hand under her top. He proceeded to place his hand down her underwear and began to rub his fingers “all over”.
The woman told investigating Gardai that Feeney “was getting a thrill from this” and she told how he kissed her on another occasion and she tried to push him away.
This incident stuck with her in later years “as the smell of him was rotten” she said.
On a further occasion, Feeney approached the girl and placed his hand on her back, under her top, before moving it around and feeling her breasts.
A second complainant told how Feeney rubbed her shoulders with cold hands and then placed his hands in the area around her breasts. When she nudged him to stop and started to walk away, Feeney offered her money to stay.
Feeney later started to rub her shoulders again before kneeling down and putting a hand on her leg. The girl stood up and walked away at this stage.
The court was told how a third complainant in the matter told Gardai how Feeney told her to lay down on a floor before getting on top of her. She said Feeney felt all around her body and then placed his hands inside her top and her underwear.
She recalled “the smell of fags” from Feeney, who sexually assaulted her on another occasion when he also placed a hand inside her clothing before stopping when he heard someone else approaching.
When Detective Garda Doyle initially interviewed Feeney, he denied all of the allegations.
The court heard victim impact statements from all three victims.
One told how she felt that her innocence was robbed by Feeney and she is now filled with “confusion and constant worry”.
She said he took over her childhood and added: “He robbed me of my childhood memories and my innocence. He had no right to take this from any child.”
She added: “It’s not something that will go away. I have to live with this for the rest of my life.”
A second victim said the assaults still have an effect, physically, emotionally and spiritually.
“I felt that my innocence was taken away from me very young and I no longer felt safe or protected,” she said.
She recalled how she often tried to hide what had happened and covered it up. She told no-one as she felt shame and said: “There was always the shadow of the hidden secret.”
The woman recalled having difficulty connecting emotionally and how it affected many more aspects of her life.
“I carried a sense of confusion,” she said. “I spent many years thinking about coming forward and opening up, but I was overwhelmed by the shame and the sorrow it would bring.”
Her innocence and security were replaced by anxiety and sadness, which shaped the way she saw both herself and the world around her.
“The memories of the abuse haunt me,” she said.
Asked by his barrister, Mr Peter Nolan BL, if he had anything to say, Feeney said from the witness box: “I am sorry for giving you all the trouble. I am sorry.”
Mr Nolan said his client has a long and very serious criminal history.
“We are not shying away from that in any shape or form,” Mr Nolan said.
He said the probation and welfare report contained “little redemption” and Feeney has been placed as a high risk of reoffending.
The probation report added that Feeney has “demonstrated little to no regard” for his victims or the effects that his crimes have had.
Feeney, who has been deemed unsuitable for community service, was adopted at a young age having spent the first four years of his life in a children’s home, the court heard. He has never been able to trace his birth parents.
The last he saw of a brother was at his adopted mother’s funeral in 1998 and Feeney has lived between hostels and boarding houses.
Mr Nolan said Feeney secured housing in 2011 and was there until his incarceration. The court was told that Feeney did have some history of employment, including as a milkman, a factory worker and a council labourer while he was a “roadie” for a show band for a period of time.
Mr Nolan asked Judge Maguire to take account of Feeney’s age and for “whatever leniency” he could give.
“He will probably die in prison,” Mr Nolan said with reference to the pending drugs charge. “Light at the end of the tunnel for this 74-year-old man, I don’t think it’s possible.”
Vile predator jailed for sexually assaulting three girls in Co Donegal was last modified: July 25th, 2025 by Staff Writer
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