A woman waived her right to anonymity yesterday so that her stepfather could be identified after he admitted sexually assaulting her over a 7½-hour period.
Julie-Ann Hudson told Dundalk Circuit Criminal Court she had believed she was "going to die" during the attack and "if I didn't fight as hard as I did I wouldn't have made it out alive".
John Hudson (46) was meant to be dropping the then 22-year-old home on October 10th, 2008 but instead he drove down a dark country lane at Beaulieu, Co Louth, at about 11pm and assaulted her.
The ordeal ended when he drove to a garage in Drogheda to get cigarettes. It was 6.35am and Julie-Ann ran into the garage and, with the help of staff, locked herself in a toilet until gardaí arrived.
'Only father I have known'
In her victim impact statement, Ms Hudson said her attacker had previously been in a relationship with her mother and "was the only father I had ever known".
She had known him since she was two and after he and her mother split up she continued to visit him.
After the attack in the car, she tried to take her own life, continues to “check doors and windows” are locked as “I am scared he will get in. It got to the stage where I slept with a knife under my pillow”.
Guilty plea
Hudson pleaded guilty to the offence when he was living in Crann Mor Cove, Clogherhead, Co Louth.
Garda David O'Leary said Hudson had to be extradited from Australia to face the charge and has been in custody since August 2012.
The defence said Hudson drank a lot on the night of the attack and had co-operated with gardaí.
Judge O’Shea said Julie-Ann had been “completely vulnerable, helpless and hopeless”. The attack had been “horrific, disgusting, embarrassing and humiliating”, he said, and it has had a “shocking and devastating effect”.
Hudson was sentenced to four years in prison, back-dated to August 2012.
Julie-Ann said afterwards: “I feel like five years of my life has gone and I only now can start moving on.”