A 32-year-old Connemara man was given a suspended six-year sentence yesterday after pleading guilty to sexually assaulting two of his sisters in the early 1990s when they were aged between four and 11.
The man, aged 15-17 at the time of the assaults, pleaded guilty before Galway Circuit Criminal Court to four sample counts of incest involving his younger sisters, which occurred in the family home between January 1990 and March 1993.
The court heard that some family members were annoyed when the sisters, now 25 and 24 respectively, went to the Garda in 2001 and made a complaint against their brother. Some of their siblings supported them, but others did not and felt going to the Garda and ultimately court, would bring shame on the family name.
Victim impact statements prepared on the sisters revealed that they had been repeatedly molested by their teenage brother. The incest stopped when one of the girls told a friend about it when she was 11 and in fifth class.
The friend told her mother and the school headmaster was informed. He then called in social services.
The court heard that the siblings came from a dysfunctional family where social and sexual boundaries were never established. The girls described how they were robbed of their childhoods and had turned to drink and drugs in later life to cope.
Both had since received counselling and treatment after making the complaint in 2001 and are now doing very well.
They said they did not want to see their brother go to prison.
The accused was also placed on the Sex Offenders Register for life.
Girl (8) awarded €34,000 damages
An eight-year-old girl, who had her two front teeth damaged in a gunfight to mark a friend's birthday party, has been awarded more than €34,000 damages in the Circuit Civil Court.
John Doherty, counsel for Shannen Egan, of Beverly Lawns, Knocklyon, Dublin, said she had been playing a game called Quazar at Leisureplex in Tallaght when she was struck in the mouth.
Mr Doherty said Shannen, who is now 13, was only eight at the time of the accident and was probably too young to have taken part in such a game in semi darkness.
He said that Shannen had damaged both her upper central incisors extending into the dentine layer of the teeth which had to be restored with composite resin.
Judge Deery approved a settlement offer of €34,330 from Leisureplex (Tallaght) Ltd, Tallaght village, Dublin, which included €14,000 for general damages and just over €20,000 in respect of dental treatment to date and future treatment.
Jailed for assaulting garda
A man who spat at a female garda and then hit her in the face at Quarantine Hill, Wicklow, on December 3rd last was jailed for six months by Judge William Early at Wicklow District Court yesterday.
Garda Fiona O'Neill said the defendant Richard O'Sullivan became very aggressive when he got out of his car after she stopped him. He spat at her and then turned and hit her in the face.
The defendant had six previous convictions.