A 64-year-old serial paedophile who sexually abused children for over 30 years is back on the streets.

John Michael McDermott, of Moorlough Road, Lisnaskea, has been released from prison after serving five years of a 10-year sentence for offences including buggery, indecent assault and acts of gross indecency.

He was one of four brothers charged with the sexual abuse of a number of children in the village of Donagh over a 35-year period from the late 1960s through to the late 1990s.

One of McDermott victims, Michael Connolly, who waived his legal right to anonymity, has come forward to say he has been informed his tormentor was to be released from prison.

He says that about six weeks ago he and other victims received a letter from the authorities telling them McDermott was to be freed on licence.

McDermott was due for release this month but may have got out of prison as early as July 1. Under the terms of his licence he will spend the next three years under the supervision of the Probation Board. He has not returned to Fermanagh.

The court also made a life-time SOPO (Sexual Offences Prevention Order) to protect the public from serious harm. It prohibits McDermott from having any unsupervised access to children under the age of 16, unless an assessment has been carried out by Social Services.

The court noted that McDermott’s family home is beside a primary school and children’s play park. A second condition of the SOPO bans him from designated areas of the village. It allows him to enter the premises of St. Patrick’s GAA Club but “only in the constant presence of an adult approved of, in writing, by Social Services”.

McDermott must also sign the Sex Offenders’ Register, requiring him to notify the police where he is living and any change of address.

McDermott originally appeared at Omagh Crown Court in June 2010, and pleaded guilty to 35 offences against four boys and a girl, the youngest of whom was just nine years old when the abuse began.

At the time His Honour Judge David McFarland said that in some respects Donagh was a “quiet picturesque village” but “it was a far from idyllic childhood for those growing up there”.

He told the court the victims had been subjected to “horrific” abuse.

“In short this was a village that had an appalling secret, and it was the children who bore the brunt of the tidal wave of abuse,” he stated.

McDermott was back in court again in 2011, 2012, 2013 and 2014, and pleaded guilty to further charges of historical child sex abuse involving four more victims.

During his most recent court appearance in January of this year, Judge Gemma Loughran told him “if you are not the worst serial sex offender in this jurisdiction, you are certainly one of the worst”.

Two of his brothers, 57-year-old Owen Roe McDermott and 65-year-old James Francis McDermott, remain in a psychiatric hospital in County Londonderry. They were charged with a series of sex offences against children in the village but were deemed unfit to stand trial due to their mental disability.

However, a jury found that they had committed the sex acts described in the 20 charges.

They were given a Supervision and Treatment Order and allowed to return to Donagh, creating a storm of controversy. The brothers eventually agreed to go into a psychiatric hospital voluntarily.

A fourth brother, 62-year-old Peter Paul McDermott, appeared at Enniskillen Crown Court in May 2010, and pleaded not guilty to indecently assaulting and committing acts of gross indecency with two young boys.

The day after his trial started he committed suicide near his home at Donagh.