A man who sexually abused his four-year-old niece and subjected her older sister to “numerous” incidents of abuse from when she was eight until 11 years old has said he was a “coward” not to hand himself in to gardaí.
The now 34-year-old man appeared before a sitting of the Central Criminal Court in Cork today having pleaded guilty to 10 counts of sexually assaulting the older child and to one count in relation to her younger sister. He was aged from 21 to 26 when he abused the girls in their home.
Prosecution senior counsel Jane Hyland indicated that while the counts for both girls referred to sexual assault, the case also involved accounts of the rape of both children. She said the case was proceeding on a “full facts basis”.
A victim impact statement was read into the record in relation to the teenage girl who was abused by her uncle when she was four years old.
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Ms Justice Siobhan Lankford heard the defendant was babysitting the girl. He abused her when she went upstairs to get a nappy.
In her victim impact statement, the young woman said that she still suffers from flashbacks arising out of what occurred to her at such a young age.
“My heart hurts because of what happened to me. I could not stop wetting myself when I started school. My mum had to bring in a change of clothes for me to have in school. I had to change my clothes all the time. I was about 13 years old when I stopped wetting the bed.
“I didn’t understand emotions and I ended up cutting my right arm because I didn’t know how to communicate or even understand what or why this happened.”
The teenager said she struggles to make eye contact with people and is afraid to go anywhere on her own.
“I [also] don’t manage the quietness on my own. I have to listen to music to blot out the quietness. I am afraid of the quietness because that reminds me of my uncle and that time in my bedroom and what happened to me.”
Her sister, who was abused from the age of eight to 11, read her own victim impact statement into evidence.
She said that the abuse inflicted on her by her uncle made her feel “gross and disgusting”.
“I could not hug anyone in my family. I felt so unhappy in myself. I started to eat and then I gained weight and I would eat more to manage the stress of the abuse that was perpetrated on me. Emotionally, I withdrew from everyone in my family and I tried to isolate myself from my friends.
“Psychologically, I am living in fear all the time. I am scared to be around people. Fear and memories of the abuse is holding me back from living my life. I am afraid of people that are nice to me because trust for me has been broken.”
The teenager recalled that she used to “curl up in a ball” when her uncle touched her. She often “bursts into tears” when she has flashbacks of what she endured at his hands.
Defence counsel, Tom Creed, SC, said his client wanted to apologise for the immense hurt he had inflicted on his nieces.
Mr Creed said his client had indicated that he had “exploited and abused” the trust of his nieces when he was supposed to be looking after them. A letter of apology was read out in court.
In it the defendant said he felt relieved when the abuse came to light three years ago as he had often considered going to a Garda station and confessing his actions. He said he regretted being too much of a coward to report himself to gardaí. The man cannot be named to protect the victims’ identities.
Meanwhile, Det Garda Tom Delaney said the abuse of the older girl was reported in 2022 after she had become upset in school when she listened to the lyrics of a song in class. She confided in a member of staff, who informed her mother. Gardaí were subsequently contacted and it emerged that her younger sister had also been abused by the same uncle.
The man was remanded on bail for sentencing on November 3rd at 2pm.
