Tearful brothers repeatedly raped by uncle tell him: "You’ll answer to God"

“But that would be letting you off easy,” he told his 64-year-old uncle. “Here I stand, not as a victim. I’m free, you’re caged. You’ll answer to God and you’ll answer to granny and grandad.”

The Dublin man, who cannot be named to protect the identity of his victims, pleaded guilty to six counts of sexually abusing the two boys at various locations in Dublin between January 1980 and March 1984. He will be sentenced on October 2.

The boys were aged between eight and 13 years’ old and six and seven years’ old respectively at the time of the offences.

The court heard they waited to come forward about the abuse until after their grandparents had died, for fear of how the revelations about their son would affect them.

Sergeant Kevin Moran told Antonia Boyle BL, prosecuting, that in the case of the older brother, the abuse started when the boy dropped over laundry to his uncle’s home.

The court heard his abuser frequently comforted him throughout the abuse, told him it was “OK” and “alright” and that it was “our secret”.

The younger brother recalled he was first abused at the age of six when his uncle invited him around to his grandparent’s home to watch a video.

The abuse stopped when the man got a girlfriend, the court heard. He went on to marry and have children.

In his victim impact statement read out in court, the older brother said: “My uncle, this man, robbed my youth and spirit. He abused me like an animal. I felt like a piece of dirt my entire life.”

“Those acts I endured, I would not wish on my worst enemy,” he added.

The man described how he struggled with his conscience about not coming forward after family members asked him not to. “I was scared he was doing it to other kids. I know what a monster he is,” he said.

Both brothers described how they turned to drugs for a long time as a way of coping with the pain and the flashbacks from the abuse.

The younger brother said he had suffered from severe depression and had had relationship issues. “I feel incapable of showing love my whole life,” he said. He shed tears as he described how he constantly asked his children if they loved him.

He said the abuse “still makes me angry, sad and physically sick”.

Both men shed tears in court as they listened to the evidence and they hugged after reading out their statements.

The court heard the man made some admissions to gardaí when he was questioned in 2013, telling them he had sexually abused his nephews after reading books about sex. He said he had “never been with a woman” at that stage and didn’t know much about sex.

He was aged between 26 and 30 at the time of the abuse.

The court heard he took a drug overdose and spent some time in hospital.

Defence barrister Damien Colgan SC, told the court his client was a man who had worked all his life and who had some health problems now. He said the man was extremely remorseful and had written a letter of apology to his victims some time ago.

The court heard he also received counselling for sexual issues in the 1990s, although no treatment records were available.

Judge Patricia Ryan ordered a probation report and adjourned the matter to October. “This is a very, very serious offence,” she said.