Galway man, 65, found guilty of raping his daughter
A Galway man who raped his daughter and threatened to kill her mother with a shotgun if she told anyone about the incident will be sentenced next November, reports Brian Hoban.
The man (65), who cannot be identified to protect his daughter’s anonymity, had denied a single count of rape and six counts of sexual assault occurring on dates between August 1991 and August 1993.
After a trial at the Central Criminal Court a jury returned unanimous verdicts of guilty on all charges. The jury had spent just under three hours in deliberations.
The offences occurred in the family home the woman shared with her father, her mother and her three siblings.
The complainant told Sean Guerin SC, prosecuting, that her father had come into her room one night when she was approximately nine or ten years old.
She said he was drunk and carrying his lawfully held shotgun. He had climbed onto her bed and removed her underwear.
He proceeded to molest her for approximately three or four minutes. Before leaving he said that he would shoot her mother if she told anyone.
She said similar incidents had occurred on six, seven or eight further occasions. On one of these occasions her father had attempted to have sex with her.
He came into the room, removed his pants, climbed onto the bed and removed her underwear. She had struggled and attempted to get off the bed.
He raped her briefly but she kept moving. He then slapped her across the face and called her a “stupid bitch”. He also had the shotgun on that occasion and repeated the threat against her mother.
The complainant said that she had once seen her father fire the shotgun when he had attempted to shoot her older brother’s dog.
She did not tell anyone about the assaults during the period they were occurring. She first told her sister at a Boyzone concert in approximately 2006.
Mr Justice Michael Moriarty adjourned the matter for sentencing on November 13th next and remanded the man in custody.
