A SLIGO man has been jailed for 15 years for the repeated rape and sexual abuse of his teenage daughter, which led to him fathering her child.
The abuse began in September 2005, when the girl was aged 13, and continued for two years. Before Mr Justice Patrick McCarthy passed sentence at the Central Criminal Court, the victim, now 19, said her father had been a hero to her when she was growing up as she “had no mum”.
The 48-year-old, who cannot be named, had pleaded not guilty last month to eight counts of sexual assault and seven of rape between September 2005 and September 2007. Within two years of the abuse starting, the victim was pregnant with his child.
In her victim impact report the woman said she had blamed herself for the abuse. She said: “I trusted my dad. He was my hero growing up. I never knew what he was doing to me, I always felt it was my fault and I was ashamed of myself.”
Det Garda Pauline McDonagh told Anne Marie Lawlor, prosecuting, the victim told gardaí her father abused her once every two to three weeks from when she was 13.