Paedophile says he thought of burning his house down rather than sell it to pay victim
Child predator David Stanton (69), a former army private in the 4th Infantry Battalion in Cork, was ordered to stump up the cash following a damages assessment hearing held last week.
“I have no money but they’ll take my house,” he complained to the Sunday World.
“I have a few pound in the credit union but I’m taking it out now because they’re going to grab it.
“That’s the family f**king home. It’s f**king lousy, like. I’m getting a raw deal.”
David Stanton complaining to our reporter about the prospect of having to sell his house to pay one of the victims he abused
Stanton – who was acquitted of abusing the man in the criminal courts before the complainant launched a civil case – said he maintains his innocence.
“I thought about burning it,” he said in relation to the possibility he could lose the house over the debt.
“But I’m willing to give him half my pension and they can take the rest of it from the house when I die.
“Why put me out on the street?”
The man who sued Stanton told us he decided to take a civil case against the pervert after a jury failed to convict him of abusing him following a trial in 2017.
David Stanton’s house
Stanton was later convicted of attempting to obstruct the course of justice after it emerged he’d approached the victim’s brother prior to trial with a €2,000 bribe to get the victim to “forget about everything”.
And, in 2019, Stanton was convicted of four charges of sexually assaulting a separate 11-year-old child in near identical circumstances as those outlined by the man in the first case.
In that case, Detective Sergeant Seán Leahy told Cork Circuit Criminal Court there was grooming of the boy with cigarettes and sweets, blackmailing by Stanton that he would tell the boy’s parents he was smoking, and finally threats to shoot the schoolboy if he did not engage in sexual acts.
The victim had been taken out shooting with the defendant where they fired his .22 rifle at bottles in a remote area.
Sgt Leahy said the most serious sexual assault occurred when Stanton pointed the rifle at the child and said: “I will shoot you.”
He made the injured party touch his erect penis and fired a gunshot over the injured party’s head. He then masturbated in front of the child.
Apart from the firing of the gun, this was the only one of the sexual assaults where he got the victim to touch his penis.
Stanton’s victim wants his abuser to pay for his crime
Stanton received a two-and-a-half-year jail term in that case after being convicted on four charges of sexually assaulting the boy, who was aged 11 to 12 in 1990/1991 when the crimes were committed.
Speaking of the trial on his own allegations of abuse against Stanton, the man who successfully sued him for damages said: “When the jury came back after my own trial in 2017 and said ‘not guilty’, all I felt was devastation — pure devastation.
“But half the evidence wasn’t allowed before the jury.
“He handed €2,000 in an envelope to my brother before the trial for me to withdraw my statement.
“And he was convicted afterwards of attempting to pervert the course of justice.
“But the jury wasn’t told any of that.
“After the second case, the one he was found guilty of, I spoke to the victim and he said to me: ‘You can’t leave that go. He’s a convicted paedophile now.’
“That’s when I decided to pursue the civil case.”
Asked about the nature of the abuse outlined in his pleadings to the High Court, the victim said: “It was my birthday and he took me hunting.
The victim speaks to our man
“He gave me 20 bullets and each time I took a shot, if I missed it, he’d start biting my ears.
“He started to dry hump me at Greenpoint in Ballinacurra.
“That was the first incident.
“And it went on then over the following two and a half years.
“He’d ejaculate on me and cover me in his semen and then he’d walk away leaving me like a dog to walk behind him back to Ballinacurra.
“He used to tell me he knew I lived alone with my mother and my three siblings.
“And he was a trained soldier and he had a gun … that was the threat that was over me so I wouldn’t come forward and tell.”
Asked how he feels in the wake of last week’s High Court judgement, the man said: “To me, what happened last week feels as good as any conviction.
“It feels like the animal didn’t win anymore. I’ve taken back control of my life.
“The sneering, the smirking, the laughing and the smiling that went on with him for 30 years is finished.
“He can’t face me now … he’ll put the head down and walk in the opposite direction to me.
“I’m just not a victim anymore to him.”
The man said his solicitor said the next step in their battle is ensuring that Stanton pays up on the debt.
“The solicitor has said to me we are going to go after the house,” he said.
“When he says he’ll give us the money from the house after he’s dead, there’s no satisfaction in that for me. I was abused in that house. I want him to regret what he’s done.
“I want him to remember … he did that to me … and that’s why he is where he is today.
“This is about making him pay.
“He has always had this thing about that house … it’s my house … so for the one thing he cares about to be taken off him, that would be a punishment.
“He has taken an awful lot from me so why should he get to stay there? That’s how I feel.”
The victim said he would also urge any other victims out there to come forward and report the abuse to gardai.
“The legal system isn’t easy and it can be harder almost than the abuse at times,” he said.
“If I never see the money out of this, I am still in a better place today for having gone through the legal system.”
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