A PAEDOPHILE ex-Provo tried to avoid being deported from America to face child abuse charges by claiming that Covid could kill him.
Arcy McMenamin was arrested in Boston in November 2019 after two women complained to police they had been sexually assaulted by the former IRA prisoner in the early 1990s.
Until then the 47-year-old, who was convicted of a 1993 IRA bomb attack on a Co Tyrone RUC station, had been living openly in the US and speaking at republican fundraisers despite being an illegal immigrant.
After being taken into custody by customs officials, McMenamin tried to fight extradition back to Northern Ireland. In March 2020, at the beginning of the Covid pandemic, his lawyers argued the predator should be bailed on health grounds.
They said keeping McMenamin locked up put him at greater risk of contracting the virus, which could kill him due to his health issues. The sex offender has a long-standing lung condition and suffered a minor stroke in January 2020. However, US judges threw out the application over fears he could flee if freed on bail.
He was deported to the UK in August 2020 and a week later appeared in Omagh Magistrates Court, charged with abusing two children.
At Dungannon Crown last Wednesday, McMenamin pleaded guilty to three counts of indecent assault and was sentenced to three years’ probation.
The court heard how the pedophile told his first victim, who was aged seven at the time, that “bad men would take her mummy and daddy” if she told anyone.
The other schoolgirl abused by McMenamin, who was 17 years old at the time of the offenses, was cornered by him in a shed when she was eight.
Judge Brian Sherrard told him: “If carried out today, one of these offenses would be rape, potentially carrying (a sentence of) life imprisonment.
“I bear in mind the extreme vulnerability of the victims and the very significant age gaps. You violated their safety.”
Judge Sherrard noted that in a pre-sentence report, McMenamin had said: “I have no words to explain how wrong this was. It’s disgusting. It shouldn’t have happened.”
The judge added: “Your reluctance to accept culpability caused the victims further trauma. It’s also concerning that while you expressed remorse, you didn’t voice any clear perception that damage to your victims might be lifelong. If you were being dealt with as an adult, you would have been sentenced to a lengthy custodial term. The fact is you were a minor and must be treated as such.”
As well as being put on probation for three years, McMenamin shamed, who had an address on the Glen Road in Drumquin, which handed a five-year Sexual Offenses Prevention Order.
The pervert was just 18 when he was convicted of bombing Fintona RUC station, an attack that injured two people, and was sentenced to eight years in prison.
He was freed early under the terms of the Good Friday Agreement and moved to the US illegally in 2000.
Customs documents show how McMenamin entered and departed the US via the visa waiver program multiple times between 2000 and 2007 but “never disclosed his criminal history on his arrival and departure record as required”.
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