A FATHER has been charged with 185 counts of raping three of his daughters over a 17-year period.
The 48-year-old Co Galway man appeared before Athenry District Court yesterday where he was remanded in custody.
The charges are in addition to 10 rape charges, which include a fourth daughter, and two counts of neglect and cruelty towards a son which were put to the man when he was arrested on Christmas Eve.
His wife, who faces a total of 18 charges of cruelty and neglect of her children between May 2002 and June of last year, was also remanded in custody at yesterday’s sitting.
Judge Joseph Mangan remanded the 45-year-old mother in custody at Mountjoy Women’s Prison to appear before Ennis District Court on Friday week, January 22nd.
Her husband was remanded in custody to Castlerea Prison to appear before Harristown District Court this Friday, January 15th.
The man has been charged with 140 counts of rape against one daughter from 1991 to 2008.
He has been charged with 24 counts of rape of another daughter from 1991 to 1996.
The man faces 21 charges of rape of a third daughter in a period from 1991 to 1996.
The couple cannot be named for legal reasons.
It was the third time the matter had been before the courts after brief hearings in Galway on Christmas Eve, and Ennis on December 29th, where they were refused bail.
The couple’s solicitor Sheena McCarthy said that a High Court application for bail on Monday was adjourned.
The application will be heard this coming Friday.
An application for bail for the 48-year-old father was refused by Judge Mangan.
It took Garda Marie Hession 10 minutes to list the file numbers of the 185 charges which the man faces.
Garda Hession said that the accused only replied to the final charge when he stated: “I didn’t do any of it.”
Judge Mangan had been told at a previous sitting that all of the couple’s children are now in care.
The charges against the woman allege that she assaulted, ill-treated, neglected, abandoned or otherwise treated the children in a manner likely to cause unnecessary suffering or injury to their health or seriously affect their well-being.