Former postman gets life for 10-year rape of daughter
A former postman who used to lock his sons out of the house while he raped his only daughter was today jailed for life.
The 47-year-old from the midlands will begin the sentence after a 20-year jail term which he is already serving for raping three of his neighbours’ young children.
The man had previously pleaded guilty to 31 counts of raping, orally raping and sexually abusing his daughter over a 10-year period.
At the Central Criminal Court, Judge Paul Carney told the accused: “There couldn’t be anything more grave than a 10-year rape of your daughter between the age of seven and 17, rapes being perpetrated in various forms.”
The court had previously been told when the man first raped his daughter in 1993 he had sent her four brothers out of the house and locked the door.
He raped her in his bedroom and the abuse continued until one of the brothers knocked on the back door.
The man put on his clothes and told his daughter: “When mammy comes home don’t say that any of this happened.”
Garda sergeant Gerry Cawley, who investigated the case said the abuse had taken place in three of the homes the family had lived in over the period.
The abuse, which included the father forcing his daughter to fondle him and give him oral sex only stopped when the man’s wife gave up work at a local community school. This meant he was no longer left alone in the house with his daughter.
The girl made a complaint to gardaí about the abuse in October 2003 and her father was arrested a month later.
The victim, now 20, sat in the court with her mother and two of her brothers as the sentence was handed out.
Michael O’Higgins, SC, representing the defence, told the court the man had worked for An Post for almost 20 years and when suspended in 1999 received a €40,000 settlement.
He said €10,000 had been given to his daughter, €13,000 to her mother and the remainder kept in an account pending any civil claims from his previous three victims.
“This is not anywhere near touching on the damage that was done,” said Mr O’Higgins who stressed the guilty plea was of immense value to the victim.
“She is spared the humiliation of having to give evidence.”
The man had been sentenced to a total of 20 years in jail in 2004 after pleading guilty to rape and sexual assault of three neighbours’ children.
Judge Carney, who ordered the man to sign the sex offenders’ register, granted leave to appeal because it was a non-mandatory life sentence.
He added: “Anything less than a life sentence would be less than proportionate.”
