Father gets four years for sexual abuse
A 48-year-old man who sexually abused his daughter and two other girls from infancy to teenage years has been jailed for four years by Dublin Circuit Criminal Court.
Judge Sean O Donnabhain said the Dublin man's actions was on the upper end of the scale considering the age of his victims, the variety of abuse, and the length of time it continued.
"Each of them have been scarred in their own way by the abuse," Judge O'Donnabhain said, expressing hope the sentence would help them achieve some form of closure to their suffering.
The man, who was until recently a casual labourer at building sites, pleaded guilty to six sample counts of sexual abuse out of 47 in the indictment. The abuse took place between 1980 and 1989 at addresses in Cabra and Finglas.
Detective Garda Brendan Bergin told prosecuting counsel, Ms Mary Rose Geraty BL, that the girls - his daughter, sister-in-law and wife's niece - were aged about six years when the man began abusing them.
Det Gda Bergin said most of the abuse took place when the girls were sleeping and it involved oral sex, digital penetration and insertion of various objects into their vaginas.
One girl had told gardai she had to remove crayons, candles and pieces of chocolate from her vagina and backside. Another said he took her to a field where he forced her to stand over his head and urinate on his face while he lay on the ground.
Neither girl had known it was happening to the other, and the abuse only stopped when they were aged around 12 or 13 and the girls began making a stand and demanded he stop.
Mr Erwan Mill-Arden SC, counsel for the defendant, said his client's attitude after he was confronted with the accusations had been "very very refreshing" as he had not tried to blame anything or anyone else for his actions.
When arrested in September 2001 after the girls complained to gardai a month before, the defendant said: "I didn't know why I did these things. They just seemed to happen. I am sorry."
Mr Mill-Arden also noted his client told gardai "those things were in the past and would not happen again". Counsel said his client had been as good as his word and had not come to gardai attention since.
Judge O'Donnabhain noted that while this might be true, the man had only stopped when the girls achieved an age where they were able to defend themselves better.
He also noted that the psychiatric report prepared on the man did not provide any underlying reasons for the man's behaviour nor did it indicate that he would be unlikely to re-offend.
Judge O'Donnabhain ordered the man's details to be entered into the Sex Offenders Register as directed by Section 14 of the Sexual Offences Act 2001.
