The Court of Criminal Appeal has dismissed an appeal by a Dublin man against his four-year jail sentence for sexually abusing his daughter when she was seven during the early 1980s.
The man, who cannot be named for legal reasons, was jailed last December for six years, with the final two years suspended, after pleading guilty to a number of counts of indecent assault against his eldest daughter at an address in Dublin .
The three-judge appeal court - with Mrs Justice Fidelma Macken presiding and sitting with Mr Justice Éamon de Valera and Mr Justice Brian McGovern - yesterday rejected all grounds of the man's appeal.
Patrick Gageby SC, for the man, had argued that the sentence was unduly harsh. He claimed that the trial judge had erred by not taking certain facts into account, including that the man had received counselling, had pleaded guilty at a relatively early stage, that the abuse had stopped more than 20 years ago and had only been reported in 2004.
Mr Gageby said his client was hard-working and had resigned from his job after the allegations came to light.
Dismissing the appeal, Mrs Justice Macken said this was a "horrific matter" involving the abuse of a young child by her father.