A 60-year-old Wicklow man who raped his daughter has been jailed for 14 years in consecutive sentences by Mr Justice Carney at the Central Criminal Court. Mr Justice Carney said if he had been told the victim was in fear of her father he would have imposed a life sentence. She had indicated he should be jailed for his offending but she was concerned he would die in prison.
The now 26-year-old victim wept uncontrollably in the public gallery after Mr Justice Carney imposed two consecutive terms of seven years on her father. The court heard earlier there was a close bond between them.
The judge noted the victim in this case was on constant medication for depression. She had attempted suicide several times and was classified a suicide risk. She was unable to form relationships and that condition was considered permanent.
The defendant in evidence said he was abused himself in his early teens by an uncle who performed oral sex on him "hundreds of times" after locking him into the bedroom and forcing him to watch while he had sexual intercourse with his wife.
He admitted raping his daughter during each of the years 1980 to 1986, and again in 1997 while on bail on the first set of charges.
The defendant originally faced 50 charges of committing sexual offences against the victim from 1980 to 1986 and pleaded guilty to seven specimen charges of raping her on unknown dates covering each year. She was aged nine to 15 when the offences were committed.
He also pleaded guilty to two further charges of rape and oral rape of her, on July 28th, 1997.
Ms Maureen Clark SC (with Barry Hickson), prosecuting, said the case was "sordid and sad in the extreme". The defendant had been convicted in the early 1980s for indecently assaulting his eldest daughter and got a six-month suspended sentence on appeal.
She was taken then from the family home but nobody thought to investigate what was happening to the victim in this case who was assaulted by him for two more years.
Sgt Joe O'Hara said the first set of assaults was reported to the Garda only in 1996 though the victim had made the allegations to others previously and nothing was done about it. The defendant had admitted his offending.
He said the defendant claimed he was drinking very heavily over those years and often did not know what he was doing. He accepted fully his relationship with his daughter was wrong and he was sorry for all that happened.
The defendant told Mr John Phelan SC (with James Peart), defending, he fully accepted he alone was responsible for what happened and was not trying to shift the blame to his daughter.
The judge said the evidence seemed to suggest the defendant did not attach much importance to his earlier conviction. The court had no choice but to impose two consecutive sentences of seven years on each indictment because the 1997 offences were committed while on bail.