Cavan man pleads guilty to sex assaults on two young daughters
A Cavan man who fled to England for a decade after raping one young daughter and sexually assaulting another has been jailed for ten years at the Central Criminal Court.
The 44-year-old man abused his daughters from the ages of six and eight, raping one of them “two to three” times a week when their mother was out of the house.
He pleaded guilty to sample counts of sexually assaulting one girl at their Cavan home from September 1999 to June 2001 and raping and sexually assaulting the other girl between November 1998 and May 2001.
Mr Justice Paul Carney jailed him for 10 years for rape offences and four years for the sexual assaults, to run concurrently with each other. He also ordered he undergo eight years post-release supervision. He has already been added to the sex offenders register.
During the sentence hearing, Mr Justice Carney asked why there had been a delay of nearly 10 years in bringing the man to justice. He was told that after the allegations were made the accused’s wife told him to leave the house and go immediately to England where he is originally from.
He was returned to Ireland in 2008 after his arrest on an European Arrest Warrant.
Sergeant Jim McGuinness told prosecuting counsel, Mr Anthony Sammon SC, that the abuse came to light one of the girls was teased at the dinner table, causing her to break down and tell her mother what had been happening.
The man had been sexually assaulting the girls while their mother was out of the house and had told one that if she told anyone she would be sent to an orphanage and he would go to prison.
The victims declined to give oral evidence of the abuse but their written statements were read out to the court.
One of the women said she was constantly afraid that her father would come back for her and she did not understand why her friend's had “proper” families and she did not.
She described him as a very aggressive man who would smash his dinner on the floor if their mother did not make it right.
“I wish he was locked up for life but that probably won't happen,” she wrote in her statement. “He was never there as a dad and when he was there it wasn't as he should have been.”
The other woman described him as a child molester and a wife beater. She said he had ruined her life and had made her afraid of men.
Defence counsel, Mr Richard Lyons SC, said his client had worked as a handyman and landscape gardener but had very little education. He said he had been abused as a child and had a violent upbringing.
Mr Lyons added he had no previous convictions and was regularly employed even when he fled to England.
