A woman who was raped by her father repeatedly since she was a child faced him in court on Friday and told him she was now free of him and it was time to rebuild her life.
The woman told the Central Criminal Court in Cork of the impact of her now 82-year-old father’s abuse, saying the weekly rapes became the norm. She said he began abusing her in their Kerry home in 1977 when she was aged just 12. The abuse continued until 1987, when she was in her early 20s.
“It’s time to speak out, I’m not keeping your secret any more, it’s your shame, your blame, you’re the one who destroyed your name and your family,” the woman told her father after he was convicted of 61 counts of rape following a two week trial. The man had denied the charges.
“As a child I needed someone to advocate for me, ensuring no harm would come my way, to feel I was safe and secure – (but) knowing no different, this was my norm, I was his, to be abused in whichever manner he so chose, after all, I was of his making,” she said in her victim impact statement.
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The woman told how her father made her feel different from the rest of the family, portraying her as a troublemaker and liar who could not tell the truth, resulting in her having low self-esteem and no faith in herself.
“I could read your face like an open book – to surrender as if to say, ‘You don’t dare best me’ – that you were going to dominate me, no matter what – you treated me as your sexual plaything, doing things that a child should never know – you robbed me of the innocence of childhood.
“While others would see you as a charismatic rogue that would help anyone out, you’re a master manipulator – no one saw the wreckage you were causing within the home and in my life,” she said.
During the trial, the jury heard that after the man was arrested for questioning on February 1st, 2023 and the allegations were put to him, he replied: “Yes, and I am willing to face the consequences.”
Det Sgt Trevor Ryan of the Kerry Protective Services Unit read from the memos where the accused admitted that he was “playing sex games” and “having sex” with her from when she was aged 14 or 15. He also said he revealed he started seeing his daughter in sexual terms from when she was aged four.
The man admitted having sex with the girl “about once a week” and told gardaí that he used a condom as he did not want her to get pregnant.
The court heard that when asked by gardaí if he was a paedophile, the man replied that he was, “but not to other kids”.
Det Sgt Ryan told how the rapes took place in houses, sheds, lanes and behind ditches in fields and although the young woman left home and went to the UK when she was aged 18, the abuse would continue when she returned home at Christmas and on holidays.
The man was also convicted of two charges of assault causing the woman harm when she was about 12, once when he hit her and broke a chair on the back of the head once he beat her with a leather strap.
Prosecution counsel, Ray Boland SC said the Director of Public Prosecutions viewed the abuse as “exceptional” because of the multiple offences, the duration of the offending and the degradation that the man inflicted on his victim. Mr Boland said he believed the offences merited a sentence of 15 years to life.
Defence counsel, Barry White SC said his client did not accept the verdict of the jury and while he could have no argument with the DPP’s view of matters if his client was in his 40s, the fact was he was 82 and to lock him up and throw away the key would be morally and legally wrong.
Ms Justice Siobhán Lankford, who was told by Det Sgt Ryan that the accused had no previous convictions, thanked the woman for her statement and remanded the accused in custody for sentence on February 14th.
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