A MAN who fled to England for 10 years after raping one young daughter and sexually assaulting another will be sentenced at a later date at the Central Criminal Court.
The 44-year-old man abused his daughters from the ages of six and eight, raping one of them “two to three” times a week when their mother was out of the house.
He pleaded guilty to sample counts of sexually assaulting one girl at their Cavan home from September 1999 to June 2001 and raping and sexually assaulting the other girl between November 1998 and May 2001.
During the sentence hearing, Mr Justice Paul Carney asked why there had been a delay of nearly a decade in bringing the man to justice. He was told that after the allegations were made, his wife told him to leave the house and go immediately to England where he is originally from.
He was returned to Ireland in 2008 after his arrest on a European Arrest Warrant.
The daughters declined to give oral evidence of the abuse but their written statements were read out to the court.
One of the women said she was constantly afraid that her father would come back for her and she did not understand why her friends had “proper” families and she did not.
She described him as a very aggressive man who would smash his dinner on the floor if their mother did not make it right.
Mr Justice Carney ordered that the man’s name be added to the sex offenders register and he remanded him in custody until later this week when he will be sentenced.