Judge considers life sentence for man who raped daughter
A Laois man who is serving a 20 years prison term for sex crimes has been remanded in custody for sentence for raping and sexually assaulting his daughter when she was aged seven to 14 years.
The 47-year-old man pleaded guilty pleaded guilty at the Central Criminal Court to 32 counts of rape, oral rape and sexual assault on his daughter over a 10-year period, 1993 to 2003.
Some of these offences were committed while he was on bail arising out the charges on which he is serving the 20 year term. He cannot be named to protect her identity.
Mr Justice Paul Carney adjourned sentence so that defence counsel, Mr Michael O’Higgins SC (with Mr Giollaiosa O Lideadha BL), can research a referral by the Court of Criminal Appeal to the Supreme Court in relation to imposition of a life sentence in certain cases.
Sergeant Gerry Cawley told Ms Isobel Kennedy SC, prosecuting, that the victim and her mother came to the gardai in October 2003 to lodge her complaint of the 10 years of sexual abuse in their three homes.
She dated the first sexual assault and rape to a date in 1993 when her brother broke his leg. Her father had ordered her brothers out of the house and then ordered her into his bedroom where he removed her and his own clothes, proceeded to fondle her body and then had sexual intercourse with her.
Sgt Cawley said she didn’t know it was wrong or how long it continued. Her father stopped on that occasion after one of her brothers came to the bedroom door and kept calling for him.
She outlined a similar pattern of sexual abuse over the coming years. This also included oral rape where he would place his penis in her mouth and push himself in and out. She was 17 years old the last time he had sexual intercourse with her in her own bed.
The abuse ended after her mother stopped working and she was no longer alone with her father in the house. Her brothers were able to confirm being put out of the house regularly and also of seeing their father with his hand down her trousers and her hands down his trousers.
When arrested he made "limited admissions" relating to sexual abuse. Mr Justice Carney directed that he be registered as a sex offender when he pleaded guilty to the current charges in January.
Sgt Cawley told Ms Kennedy that the man is serving a total of 20 years in consecutive sentences for offences involving three other young girls. He was released on bail after being charged with these other offences in 1999 and committed some of the crimes on his daughter while on bail.
Sgt Cawley agreed with Mr O’Higgins that the man’s guilty plea in January was a welcome relief to the victim and her mother. He had also sent a written apology to his daughter and directed that €10,000 of his redundancy money was to be paid over to her "no matter what happens to him". His remorse was genuine.
The man was convicted in 2003 of 11 charges of rape and 20 of indecent assault between 1975 and 1984 on three sisters who were aged from four to 14 years. His conviction came following a seven day trial in which the jury heard he offered the victims crisps as an enticement.
Mr Justice Michael Peart imposed 20 years in consecutive sentences because, he said, he wanted "to ensure that each victims’ suffering is considered and punished for individually".
One of the victims, who was raped 10 times, told Mr Justice Peart she had spent six years undergoing psychiatric treatment and had attempted several times to take her own life. She had also undergone 11 years of counselling and medication, and still continued to do so, with adverse effect on her own children.
