A Dublin couple fled to England abandoning their nine-year-old daughter after she went to gardai to expose her father's sexual abuse of her, the Central Criminal Court has heard.
Her father was jailed for four years yesterday by Mr Justice Carney who said the Oireachtas had fixed a five-year maximum penalty for the sex assault offences admitted by the man.
The court was told the couple had stayed in Liverpool with their other children for several years.
Det Garda Martin Hughes said the defendant was a "very cold man" who initially denied the offences. The DPP directed no charges be brought against him but the British social services monitored the family.
In 1995, after the family returned to Ireland, a second daughter made a complaint to gardai and the full case was reopened. The 38-year-old man - who originally faced 50 charges - pleaded guilty in June to three charges of sexually assaulting one daughter, now aged 14, on unknown dates from August 15th to November 15th, 1992. He also admitted sexually assaulting his second daughter, now aged 11, on four occasions from September to November 1995.