A woman whose father raped her repeatedly when she was a teenager has said her family has been torn apart in the wake of the abuse and that she will never forgive her mother for taking his side.
Ellen O’Driscoll (24) said she was serving a life sentence since coming forward with the allegations against her father, Patrick O’Driscoll.
She said her entire family, including eight siblings, have turned against her and she is now isolated from the Traveller community.
“It’s torn my family apart,” Ms O’Driscoll said, in a victim impact statement handed up to the Central Criminal Court on Monday.
“My mam, sisters, brothers, uncles and aunts all took his side. So I have no family now . . . I don’t blame my brothers and sisters as I know what it’s like to have someone messing inside your head. But I will never forgive my mam.”
The court heard Ms O’Driscoll, who was not in court for the sentence hearing, wished to waive her right to anonymity.
Her father, who is in custody, will be sentenced by Mr Justice Paul Butler on January 17th.
O'Driscoll (41), with an address in Codrum, Macroom, Co Cork, was found guilty by a jury of 61 counts of raping his daughter when she was aged between 16- and 17-years-old. He had denied the charges.
The week-long trial last month heard Ms O’Driscoll was the eldest child of a large Traveller family that moved around frequently but lived in Cork city in 2008 and 2009, when the abuse took place.
Abuse
Ms O’Driscoll told the court that her father raped her on a weekly basis from the time she turned 16.
The abuse took place when her mother was out shopping and she was minding her younger siblings.
Ms O’Driscoll broke down several times as she told the court that, on the first occasion, her father ordered her into her parents’ bedroom, tied her hands behind her back, put a pillow over her face and raped her.
“He said, ‘I’ve missed this. I won’t go without it anymore’,” she said.
She said that, afterwards, her father “just acted like a normal loving father, when he was far from that”.
The trial also heard Ms O’Driscoll was not allowed go to school.
“I had to stay at home, clean, cook, look after the kids, behave like a housewife,” she said.
She said he told her not to tell anyone about the abuse, telling her he would kill her and kill himself if anyone found out.
“He used to threaten that I would never see my brothers and sisters if I told anybody and that’s what happened,” she said. “To this day, I don’t see them.”
Defence barrister Thomas Creed said there was little he could say in mitigation for his client, given his not guilty pleas.
However, he said O’Driscoll’s family supported him and they were “shocked and saddened by his conviction.
“They still love him very much and miss him very much,” he said.