“I THOUGHT I had seen it all – well I haven’t”. That was the conclusion of a Circuit Court judge as he sentenced a man who humiliated and emotional and physically tortured his elderly parents in their home.
John Trimble, 39,of Bolart, Clara, Co Offaly, admitted the false imprisonment of Elizabeth, 70, and John Snr, 71, Trimble between March 7 and 12, 2009. Tullamore Circuit Court heard that their ordeal lasted even longer than those five days. Trimble admitted assaulting and endangering his parents on dates between March 1 and July 17, 2009. The couple were forced by their son to have cold showers every morning and to leave the back door open so they could drip dry. Mrs Trimble was forced to wash the laundry and clean the floor while naked, despite her pleas for clothes. When they were dressed, they were not allowed to wear underwear or socks.
Judge Anthony Kennedy described Trimble as a “sadistic monster” and said that he was most “disturbed” by the fact that the accused was “not mad”, reports The Irish Independent.
When gardai gained access to the house with two HSE nurses who had been refused entry, they found Mr and Mrs Trimble naked and lying on a bed. The Irish Times reported Sgt Jer Glavin as saying:
They appeared to be very much frightened and in a distressed state.
The couple were malnourished and taken to hospital. It emerged that they had survived almost entirely on lemonade and biscuits – both are diabetics. They had lost three stone in weight after their ordeal and were bulimic.
John Trimble hit both his mother and father on separate occasions and Mrs Trimble was left with a black eye when he punched her in the face. He refused to let the couple attend neither the funeral of John Trimble Snr’s sister nor their grandchild’s First Communion.
Mrs Trimble had only been allowed to leave the house on a Friday to shop and collect her pension. She said she would have run away but she didn’t want to leave her husband behind – he was suffering from prostate cancer.
The court heard that John Trimble Jnr forbade other family members from contacting his parents and their youngest son Damian read a victim impact statement from the couple which said that they still live in fear of their son John.
John Trimble was sentenced to 15 years in prison. Gardai had said that the sentence should reflect the seriousness of his crimes in the “house of hell”.
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