A Tipperary man who kidnapped and sexually assaulted a 14-year-old girl will not be spending Christmas with his 81 year old mother.

Joseph Finnerty of Grove Villas, Roscrea was today jailed at the Central Criminal Court for 3 years for the attack on November 6th, 2000.

Mr Justice Barry White refused a request to postpone the sentence to allow the father of two spend Christmas with his elderly mother, who is ill.

The court heard before this attack, the victim was a happy girl with no worries – now she has a distorted view of the world as an unsafe and frightening place.

On the night in question 9 years ago Joseph Finnerty grabbed the teenager by the hair and dragged her into his car, when she tried to get out of the vehicle with her boyfriend and another man.
The group had returned at closing time after socialising in a number of local pubs.

He drove her to a woodland area where he sexually assaulted her twice in the car.