A 40-YEAR-OLD Dublin man has been sentenced to 14 years in prison for the sexual and physical abuse of his daughter. The final two years of the sentence were suspended by the judge
During a nine-day trial last April, a jury at the Central Criminal Court returned verdicts of guilty on 20 counts of sexual assault, 19 counts of oral rape and 19 counts of anal rape between 2001 and 2006.
The jury also found the man, who cannot be named for legal reasons, guilty of intentionally or recklessly causing the girl serious harm by scalding her with water from a kettle at the family home between August 2003 and April 2004.
Mr Justice Barry White said the man’s “offensive behaviour was a serious breach of trust in relation to his daughter, who was quite clearly in a vulnerable position.
“Your daughter suffered profoundly as a result of your behaviour,” Mr Justice White told him.
The daughter said in her victim impact statement that she was now “a person with the inability to trust anyone easily and struggles to maintain relationships.
“I have chronic nightmares and have been in therapy for years and I am still struggling to come to terms with what happened to me. I have never known what it was like to have a proper father and I lost my childhood and have been denied a right to live a normal life.
“The scarring on my body leaves me too embarrassed to wear certain clothing for fear people would see the scars,” said the woman, now aged 21.
John Peart SC, defending, said the man’s family believed he was a good man and the “verdict is out of character” .
Mr Justice White heard he had previous convictions for malicious wounding and being drunk and disorderly.