A 6 1/2 year sentence was imposed on a 52 year old Co Offaly man who pleaded guilty at Tullamore Circuit Court yesterday to 25 charges embracing incest, indecent assault and sexual assault of his two daughters between 1980 and 1992. The final 18 months of the sentence were suspended.
Statements by the two daughters, now aged 22 and 26, described how they had been abused by their father on an almost daily basis and were told that all fathers had to do this.
The accused, who cannot be named to protect the identity of the victims, habitually came to breakfast naked.
One of the girls recalled in her statement how she and her brother had been forced to strip and stand facing each other while their father urged them to have sex.
Imposing sentence, Judge Sean O'Leary said the accused had blighted the lives of his children.