A Kildare man has been jailed for 12 years for raping and sexually abusing his daughter for almost a decade.
A local detective garda revealed the man abused his daughter from when she was three years old. On one occasion when the girl was aged about 12 years, he tied her to a tree with calving rope and raped her.
He told Remy Farrell, prosecuting, that on another occasion the man tried to give the girl a tablet in a chocolate bar before he brought her to a secluded woodland area and raped her.
The man who cannot be named to protect the victim’s identity pleaded not guilty at the Central Criminal Court to 18 counts of sex assault, one count each of oral rape and attempted rape and four counts of raping his daughter on dates between 2001 and 2010.
The detective read out the girl’s victim impact statement. She described how she could never call her father “dad” again. She said words like “shame, hurt, anger, depression, fear” were constantly in her head.
The detective said there was medical evidence that the girl had been physically damaged from all the abuse.
He agreed with senior counsel Conor Devally, defending, that the man had had a disruptive background.
Mr Devally submitted to the judge that his client had been abused himself which would perhaps explain his behaviour, though not excuse it. He said the man had low literacy skills and had been “intellectually and educationally” deprived.
Justice Barry White said he agreed with the DPP that the rape offences warranted a 15- year sentence. He suspended the final three years.