A 400 pound-plus pedophile church elder has been released from custody in Northern Ireland because he was too fat to serve a two-and-a-half--year jail term in prison.

John William McConaghy was sentenced to 30 months in prison last Ocotber by an Antrim Crown Court for sexually abusing a 10-year-old girl more than 30 years ago.

The court found him guilty of 20 counts of sexual assault, and he was placed on the Sex Offenders Register for life.

However, Judge David Smyth freed McConaghy because of the "exceptional circumstances" regarding his obesity. He said that the "extent of the arrangements that would have to be made to accommodate" McConaghy forced the judge to release the pedophile.

The Sunday school teacher has denied ever abusing the now 44-year-old woman as a child. When faced with the allegations during his trial, he said they were "completely false" and "totally untrue."

The pedophile has not once shown remorse for his crimes, nor has he ever admitted them. The victim said the abuse stopped when she was 18. She scraped the man in the face and he never touched her again.

The woman said that over the eight-year period of abuse, she had "a better than even chance of being touched on my boobs or a hand put up my skirt."

The pedophile was ordered to pay $16,600 in compenstaion to the victim.