A father-of-three has been jailed for five years for sexually abusing a 12-year-old boy more than 25 years ago after he made the child believe he wanted a relationship with him.
Alan Lyons (38) first revealed that he had been abused by Dirk Jager (57) while attending psychological services in prison, where he is serving a life sentence for murder. He waived his anonymity so Jager’s identity could be published.
Jager, of Sandybanks, Manor Kilbride, Blessington, Co Wicklow, pleaded guilty at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court to three charges of sexual assault and three charges of gross indecency on dates between December 1992 and December 1997.
Lyons was aged between 12 and 17 at the time, while Jager was 31 when the abuse started. Jager has a previous conviction for sexual assault from 1997 which involved the abuse of a child in the mid 1990s.
Sgt Ken Holohan told Fionnuala O’Sullivan BL, prosecuting, that Lyons was jailed for life in 2000 after being convicted of murder following a fatal stabbing two years earlier. He began attending psychological services in prison and revealed that he had been abused as a child.
When gardaí visited him in Wheatfield Prison to take a statement, Lyons told them “I was a kid and I never told him to stop. He just made me believe this was what I wanted to do”.
The court heard that the victim and his friends began visiting Jager’s business in Dublin city and Jager would take photographs of them in their swimming togs. He later began sexually assaulting Lyons and this escalated to acts of full penetrative sex.
Low opinion
Reading his victim impact statement in court Lyons said he had a low opinion of himself around the time of the abuse.
“My family knew something was wrong but I couldn’t tell them.”
He said he started to mix with people involved drugs and criminality and said he felt safer with these peers “than my secret being exposed”.
Lyons described feeling “dirty and vulnerable” and said Jager took away his innocence, hopes and ambitions.
He said he “was just something to use and abuse” but has since decided he is never going to be a victim again.
“I struggled with my sexual identity. I was lonely and scared but all I could do was rage. My view of the world and people became so skewed. If anyone tried to help, I looked on them with suspicion,” Lyons told the court.
Jager expressed regret to Lyons in a letter read by his lawyer James Dwyer SC.
“I cannot ask for forgiveness as I cannot forgive myself,” the letter stated.
He said he hoped that Lyons could “find peace”.
Judge Melanie Greally imposed a total sentence of six years but suspended the final year for five years on condition that Jager engage with the Probation Service on the issue of risk management. She said she was taking all of Jager’s assertions of remorse and insight with a grain of salt.