Victims of prolific paedophiles Adams and McDonald in call for change to sentencing guidelines

Earlier this year Ian James Alexander McDonald (69) from Broughshane in Co Antrim pleaded guilty to two charges of indecent assault against two young boys.

The offences took place on dates between February 28, 1980 and April 6, 1982.

A serial offender, in January 1992 McDonald was convicted of 42 offences including sexual assaults, taking indecent images and publishing obscene materials.

He was given 10 years in prison then.

Sentencing him this year, Judge Patricia Smyth said the victims were “survivors because they have survived what was done to them”.

However, Judge Smyth added that she had to consider whether the court in 1992 would have imposed a greater sentence had the two indecent assault offences been before it. She sentenced him to two years in jail, which was suspended. He was also put on sex offender’s register for life.

One of McDonald’s victims said the punishment was not appropriate and has asked for it to be reviewed.

“The leniency of McDonald’s sentence does absolutely nothing to deter child rapists of the present or the future,” he said.

“Suspending his sentence is turning a blind eye to the lifetime of damage he caused.

“The sentence is outrageously inappropriate.”

The victim added that the slow pace of the court process and the continual delays, often only announced at the last minute, added to his distress.

He has written to both Attorney General Brenda King and Lord Chief Justice Sir Declan Morgan.

The latter’s office responded sympathetically to his concerns, but added: “Sentencing is a matter for each individual judge after consideration of the specific circumstances of each case.

“In calculating the appropriate sentence for the offence, the judge will have considered a range of factors specific to that case including the seriousness of the offence, the offender’s previous convictions, aggravating and mitigating factors, whether the offender pleaded guilty and at what stage in the process — a guilty plea at an early stage will attract a greater discount, the relevant law including the maximum sentence which the court can impose and any sentencing guidelines relevant to the offence committed.”

Meanwhile, three victims of Northern Ireland’s most prolific sex offender Billy Adams are to ask for a meeting with the Stormont Justice Committee to discuss the loophole that allows offenders to reduce their sentence by changing jurisdiction while in prison.

Last month Adams was sentenced to three years at Laganside Court for attempted buggery and sexual assault of a young man he shared a dorm with in Rathgael youth detention centre in the early 1980s.

The victim, who now lives in England, said he was disgusted at the punishment handed out.

“Because of how high risk he is, I was told it would probably be five years,” he said.

“I’ve been physically sick. I’m just totally devastated.”

Adams has numerous previous convictions, including the rape of his then eight-year-old niece Michelle Erwin, who bravely waived her right to anonymity along with a second victim, Jade Critchlow, who Adams raped repeatedly after he went to England in 2005, escaping his sex offender’s monitoring restrictions.

Ms Erwin says because of the loophole, she fears Adams will be released back into the community to offend again.

She added that despite raising the loophole in the law after Adams changed jurisdiction while imprisoned in the Republic for raping her, nothing has been done to stop it happening again.

After being convicted of raping Ms Erwin, Adams applied to be transferred to Northern Ireland, where he was able to reduce his sentence by availing of 50% remission.

The 12 years he was sentenced to in the Republic was cut in half when he moved to prison here, which meant he was released in 2004.

When freed from Maghaberry, he moved almost immediately to Bootle in Merseyside, where he changed his name to Billy Adamson and began grooming Jade, who was 12 at the time. He raped her repeatedly over a six-month period. He was jailed for life with a minimum of 15 years in England, but transferred back to prison here in 2019.

Ms Erwin has written to the Attorney General and requested a meeting with MLAS, along with the other two victims, to discuss the situation.