A divorced Co Cork man has been jailed for five years for raping his sister almost 30 years ago at their rural home. The 48-yearold father of two daughters was found guilty on November 24th in the Central Criminal Court. He has been in custody since.
The jury took just over three hours to reach unanimous verdicts on four rape charges and four of indecent assault from June 1969 to August 1971.
He originally faced four rape and eight indecent assault charges but Mr Justice Patrick Smith withdrew four of the indecent assault charges from the jury following an application by the defence.
The defendant had denied the charges. He said he could not understand why his sister, now 41, made the allegations. He told the jury he seldom saw his mother before she died some time ago. "There was never much love in our family," he said.
Mr Justice Smith imposed four concurrent sentences of five years each on the rape charges and four terms of 18 months each on the indecent assault charges.