Abergavenny man to be sentenced for child sex offences

A man from Abergavenny has been told he cannot revoke the guilty pleas he entered at trial last year, when he stood accused of historic child sex abuse that took place in the town.

Daniel Hickey, formerly of Bishop Crescent, was convicted of five counts counts of sexual activity with a child, one count of causing or inciting a child to engage in sexual activity, one count of causing or inciting a child under 13 to engage in sexual activity, one count of sexual assault of a child under 13 and one count of rape.

That was in August 2025, when Hickey changed his plea to guilty for some of the offences he had been accused of part-way through the trial. But earlier this year, after two psychiatric assessments had concluded he was not showing signs of dementia, the convict applied to vacate his admission.

Hickey had sacked his previous legal team and claimed he had been ill-advised by them when he had entered the guilty pleas.

When The Chronicle recently spoke to the woman who reported the abuse, now in her thirties, she said she had lost faith in the justice system due repeated delays to a hearing that would determine whether the convicted rapist and paedophile would be able to stand down from his previous admission.

That hearing finally took place on Friday, September 25 where it was confirmed that Hickey’s original guilty pleas for nine of the 25 counts that were brought against him would stand. The remaining offences were never formally dismissed.

Hickey is now awaiting sentencing, a process which was delayed several times after the hearing in 2025 due to the aforementioned psychiatric assessments. A provisional date of Wednesday October 7 has been given for the former Abergavenny man to learn his fate.