A MAN already serving a 12-year sentence for sexual abuse of his daughter has been given a concurrent 14-year term by Mr Justice Paul Carney at the Central Criminal Court for earlier sexual abuse of his nephews and nieces.
The man abused the children while he was aged between 14 and 23 years between 1981 and 1990 and on one occasion made a five-year-old boy perform oral sex on his six-year-old sister.
Ten years later the man began abusing his daughter on an almost daily basis – including regular oral rape – beginning in July 2000 when she made her First Holy Communion and ending in 2007 when she left home.
He was jailed for 12 years last November by Mr Justice Carney for the abuse of his daughter after pleading guilty to four counts of oral rape and eight counts of sexual assault against her.
The judge yesterday said he was taking into account a point raised by defence counsel, Michael O’Higgins, that if all the cases had been dealt with at the same time, the effective sentence would probably have been somewhat higher then 12 years but not significantly so.
Mr Justice Carney imposed a sentence of 14 years imprisonment on the rape charges and nine years on the indecent assault charges, with all sentences to run concurrently from last November. He registered the man as a sex offender and ordered 10 years of post-release supervision.
The 41-year-old man, who cannot be named for legal reasons, pleaded guilty to three counts of rape and 12 counts of indecent assault against three nieces and one nephew on dates between 1981 and 1990.
Paul McDermott SC, prosecuting, said the Director of Public Prosecution’s view was that these offences were at the upper end of rapes and indecent assaults.
Garda Michael McGrath told Mr McDermott that the investigation into this abuse began in August 2005 when three of the victims made a complaint to gardaí about their uncle.
Garda McGrath said the man raped and performed oral sex on one of his nieces several times while she was aged between nine and 13 years. She said the abuse was “extremely painful” and he threatened her that she would be taken into care if she told anyone.
He also indecently assaulted the girl numerous times while she was aged between four and 13 years. Garda McGrath said the abuse stopped when she told him she was going to tell on him.
The man indecently assaulted a second niece several times while she was aged between four and nine years. The abuse stopped when she moved from the area.
Garda McGrath said the man abused a brother and sister in a single incident in 1989 when he was babysitting them. He performed oral sex on the six-year-old girl and procured her younger brother to also perform oral sex on her.
Mr O’Higgins said the accused man had instructed him to “apologise unreservedly”.
He said the accused had initially taken a trial date in this case at a time when he was at large and drinking heavily but once he was in prison following his sentencing for the abuse of his daughter, he had quickly entered a guilty plea saving the trauma of a trial for his victims.
Mr O’Higgins said there was a “high level of dysfunctionality” in the accused man’s family background and the man himself had been the subject of abuse perpetrated by relatives and a family friend involving oral sex and buggery.
He said the accused was caught in the cycle of being an abused person and may have seen that behaviour “in a skewed, perverted way as normal”.