A Wicklow man who sexually assaulted his niece when she was a little girl has been sentenced to six and a half years in prison.
The 71-year-old defendant pleaded guilty to three charges of indecent assault against his young relative on unknown dates between 1982 and 1988 when she was aged 6-12 at a number of locations in Co Wicklow including his family home.
Although the victim waived her right to anonymity, so her uncle could be named, the accused cannot be identified for other legal reasons.
A sitting of Wicklow Circuit Criminal Court heard one of the offences took place shortly after the victim’s Holy Communion when her uncle brought her out to bird cages at the back of the family home where he lived with his parents.
Detective Garda Frank Gunter told the court that the accused masturbated on his niece before placing his fingers in her vagina.
On another occasion when she was slightly older, Det Garda Gunter said the defendant was more aggressive and got her to accompany him in his car to go to a shop.
He said the defendant parked the vehicle on the main street of his hometown and unzipped his trousers and pushed his niece’s head down on his penis which caused her to gag.
The man then drove the girl to a graveyard where he ejaculated into her mouth.
The court heard that when the victim was around 8 years old, her uncle again placed his fingers in her vagina.
In a separate incident, he got his niece to sit on his lap in the sitting room of his home when other adults were present in the house.
Det Garda Gunter said the accused had placed his fingers in her vagina and started bouncing her on his knee.
Around the time of her Confirmation, the girl followed her uncle down to a room where he had brought two of her younger cousins where he carried out another sexual assault on her.
The court heard that the man has 70 previous convictions for sexual offences and is currently serving a nine-year jail sentence for the rape and indecent assault of his sister, the victim’s mother.
Det Garda Gunter said the man made no comment when arrested at his home in January 2019.
Asked by gardaí if he had any remorse, the man replied: “There’s nothing much I can say. I did wrong big time.”
The court heard the unmarried father of two, who only discovered the existence of his second child in recent years, suffers major health problems.
Judge Patrick Quinn said the man had engaged in “horrendous offending” given the tender age of his victim.
The judge said the offending was at the higher end of the scale with seriously aggravating factors.
Sentencing the accused to seven years in prison, he suspended the final six months and backdated the term of imprisonment to when he entered a guilty plea in March this year.
If you have been affected by any of the issues raised in this article, you can call the national 24-hour Rape Crisis Helpline at 1800-77 8888, access text service and webchat options at drcc.ie/services/helpline/ or visit Rape Crisis Help.
