The elderly couple who were subjected to a horrendous litany of abuse at the hands of a son described as a “sadistic monster” have been left penniless, terrified and isolated.

Seventy-one-year-old John Trimble and his wife Elizabeth (70) were held captive and tortured by their son John Jnr (39) over a five-month period at the family home in Bolart, Clara, Co Offaly. He was jailed for 15 years last Thursday night.

“We live in a constant state of fear,” they said. “Our daughter has to call to our apartment on a daily basis to reassure us.”

The couple have physically recovered and are living in an apartment away from Offaly. They have lost their financial independence and rely now on welfare and hand-outs. “As old-age pensioners we find our situation depressing,” they said in a victim impact statement read to the court by their youngest son Damien.

They had hoped to spend their “twilight years” living in comfort in their home, “instead we have had to move away from the community we spent our whole life in”. As well as being left penniless, the Trimbles said the ordeal had “left us feeling humiliated and embarrassed”.

“We both feel unable to trust people as we did before and we are racked by guilt for not attending my sister’s funeral,” stated John Snr.

Defence counsel Colm Smyth called it “an extremely disturbing case, not only abnormal, defying the laws of nature”.

The abuse was uncovered when two HSE nurses made a complaint to gardaí having been refused access to the house in Bolart on 17 July, 2009, following a tip-off from a family member.

The nurses returned with gardaí and after a 40-minute stand-off, were granted access to the Trimble home.

Sgt Jer Glavin discovered the starving, terrified, naked elderly couple huddled in bed.

“They were naked and they were lying on a bed. They appeared to be very much frightened and in a distressed state,” said Glavin.

On surveying the house, Glavin noticed there were “very little items in the way of foodstuffs”. He said an alarm was “ringing constantly” and “penetrating, even for me”.

The elderly pair were rushed to hospital where they would recuperate for nine days. A subsequent doctor’s report revealed they had lost three stone in weight each. Their other son Damian and daughter Jacqueline were notified. Damian lives abroad, while Jacqueline had been refused access to her parents on a number of occasions.

Deprived of clothes and food

A week after their removal from the house, the elderly couple were interviewed by gardaí at the Midland Regional Hospital in Tullamore.

Elizabeth Trimble, who suffers from diabetes, told gardaí her son had deprived her of clothes and food. He had hit her and insisted she carry out housework while naked. “Her son, on almost every morning whether it be six, seven or 8am, would force her to get out of bed,” Glavin explained.

She would then be forced to take a cold shower before being left in the bathroom to drip dry. “John Trimble Jnr would open the back door and would allow a cold breeze enter the house. She expressed that she was frozen with the cold,” he remarked. Following this ordeal, John Jnr would send her out in the elements to a laundry shed at the rear of the house, he said. “She would remain naked and he would instruct her to put on a laundry.”

The elderly woman was also forced to wash the kitchen floor on her hands and knees with antiseptic wipes while undressed. “She would plead with him to allow her to put on clothes,” added Glavin.

On one occasion he forced her into a scalding hot shower. As a result she was treated in hospital for burns to her neck. The woman also received a black eye when she was punched in the face. “He would blame her by saying she brought it on herself,” said Glavin. “Some days she used to be hungry. She often felt weak; she suffers from diabetes.”

On Fridays, John Jnr would allow his mother to leave the house for the purpose of collecting her pension. Although she often thought of running away, Elizabeth Trimble felt she couldn’t because of her fear of what might happen to her husband, who had just been diagnosed with prostate cancer.

John Snr told gardaí of “his shame at what was going on in the house”. He too was refused clothes and forced to shower and drip dry. When going to the toilet or when in his bedroom, his son would not permit the closure of the door. John Jnr told him “he hoped he would roll up in a ball and die of cancer”.

“If Mr Trimble Snr would touch anything he would force him to take a shower,” explained Glavin. “The only liquid available to him was 7up. His wife got a new pair of shoes and the accused would direct to her the particular areas she was allowed to walk.” When she stepped in the wrong area John Jnr “threw them away”.

Not allowed watch TV

John Snr was denied access to a phone or contact with his daughter. He was not allowed to watch television. John Jnr would not feed him and when he was fed it was normally only with biscuits, he told gardaí.

When his sister Betty Dempsey died in Mullingar, he was not allowed attend either the funeral or the removal. John Trimble was also prevented from attending his grandson’s communion.

John Jnr offered no defence to the court although he was found fit to enter a plea. “I’ve done very wrong judge and I am sorry and if I could turn back time I would,” he said. “I am like a hermit, just on my own, I have no one to talk to anymore.”

He added: “I am sorry, I really am, I love them to bits and I know I may never see them again.”
Sentencing Trimble to 15 years in prison at Tullamore Circuit Court on Friday, Judge Anthony Kennedy said: “I’ve spent 40 years prosecuting, defending and judging cases of every sort and I thought I had seen it all. Well, I haven’t... What’s particularly disturbing in this instance is the fact he isn’t mad.”

The evidence in the case was he said, “enough to leave anyone aghast at such evil. This sadistic monster in the care of his parents... with depravity at every turn.”