A west Dublin woman whose father said "she was bad from the day she was born" has been jailed for falsely claiming he raped and sexually abused her.
The 35-year-old woman was convicted by a Dublin Circuit Criminal Court jury in October of making the false statements at the Rathmines Women's Refuge on July 20th and 24th, 2002.
Judge Anthony Hunt imposed a four- year term on the woman, who cannot be named for legal reasons, and said he could not think of a more serious allegation than a father being accused of raping his daughter. "I can only imagine the distress this father suffered," he said.
Judge Hunt also commented on "the wider social implications" of people making false rape accusations, which he said "are damaging in that they have the serious knock-on effect of bringing about a rise in the disbelief of genuine rape victims.
"Finally, one has to mention the waste of time and resources of the gardaí and the sexual assault unit in the Rotunda Hospital," Judge Hunt added.
He suspended the final two years of her sentence on the condition that she remain working with the Probation Services for three years.
The jury found her not guilty on 11 further charges alleging she made false statements to gardaí on dates from May 15th, 2002 to July 31st, 2002.
She had denied she made 13 false statements claiming her father raped and sexually abused her from the age of six and that he was the father of one of her children. DNA evidence given in the trial proved he was not the child's father.
She had withdrawn her allegations in a 14th statement. Garda Dervilla Corcoran told prosecuting counsel Dominic McGinn on day-one of the trial that the woman had made similar allegations to another garda in 2001, but also withdrew them soon afterwards.
Garda Corcoran said an investigation into her allegations was launched and a file on her father was sent to the Director of Public Prosecutions. He was arrested and denied the allegations, but when the DPP told gardaí they would be unable to prosecute the case, the woman made a 14th statement withdrawing all her allegations and stating they were untrue.
The woman's father agreed in evidence that he told investigating gardaí that "from the day she was born she was bad" and made the claims because he was seeking custody of her children.
He told Mr McGinn she had been a "troublesome child" who was committed aged 15 to an institution "for treatment for her drinking problems".
He denied all her allegations and said her children were eventually taken into care by social services before he and his wife began seeking custody of them.