Appeal court cuts child molester’s ‘unduly long and harsh’ sentence in half
ST. JOHN’S, N.L. — An appeal court has dramatically reduced a five-year jail term given a 74-year-old man for molesting four young girls, calling the sentence “unduly long and harsh” and cutting it in half.
Reginald O’Keefe will now serve 30 months, less time served, for indecently assaulting the girls, who are all now women.
“There was no intercourse, but in some cases the girls were held captive and assaulted in circumstances which instilled great fear,” Justice Lois Hoegg of the Court of Appeal of Newfoundland and Labrador said in a ruling released Monday.
The women came forward separately in 2014 after hearing he had been convicted of molesting a three-year-old girl, and he has also separately been convicted of indecent and harassing phone calls.