Kildare man gets peace bond for breach of Sex Offenders Register

A MAN who breached the regulations of the Sex Offenders Register by attempting to enter the UK was given a 12-month peace bond in Athy District Court last week.

Sean Dunne (63), with an address at Rahoonbeak, Colbinstown on the Kildare-Wicklow border was charged under Section 12 of the Sex Offenders Act when he tried to enter the UK on 15 February.

The court heard how Dunne had been given a 10-year sentence, with two and a half years suspended, in 2013 for an offence that happened two years before that at the above address, and was then put on the Register.

Judge Desmond Zaidan enquired how the breach was noted, and was told by Sergeant Michael Murphy: “He was flagged at the port of entry … and we were notified by the British authorities”.

“He was visiting family in the UK,” said his solicitor Seamus Boyle. “He’s putting his hands up.”

“He was convicted of sexual assault, not rape,” he clarified.

“He was sentenced in 2013, appealed in 2016, and released in early 2020,” he said.

Judge Zaidan accepted his solicitor’s explanation, and so placed Mr Dunne on a peace bond for 12 months, but imposed no further sanctions.