THE HIGH Court has ordered a Co Offaly farmer to pay €350,000 damages to his niece after finding he raped and sexually abused her over a period of 13 years.
The woman, now in her mid- 30s, had claimed the assaults occurred between 1990 and 2003 at various locations in Co Offaly including her family home, a car, a milking parlour, her grandmother’s house and when babysitting in her uncle’s home.
Yesterday, Mr Justice John Quirke said, on the balance of probabilities, he was satisfied the man “physically and sexually assaulted his niece regularly and repeatedly from when she was 12 years old” and raped her when she was 14 years old.
These assaults were of the “utmost gravity” and committed by a person who occupied a position of trust, the judge said. The woman’s childhood had been blighted and she had suffered intensely from a young age until she was in her mid-20s.
The judge noted the man had openly admitted sexually assaulting the woman and another young girl on numerous occasions but did not appear to believe what he did was wrong. The woman had sued her uncle for damages, including aggravated damages. He had denied the claims.
The court heard he was convicted at the Central Criminal Court in 2007 of sexually assaulting his niece but was acquitted of charges of raping her and jailed for 13 months.
The woman, now a doctor, claimed she suffered anxiety, nightmares, depressive episodes, isolation and is on medication as a result of the alleged abuse.
She said she was afraid to talk to anyone about these matters but finally made a statement to the Garda in 2003.
Cross-examined by her uncle, who represented himself, the woman denied fabricating the claims against him.
Yesterday, Mr Justice Quirke said he found the woman’s evidence to be truthful and he accepted her evidence “without qualification”. This evidence contrasted with her uncle’s evidence which was “self serving, unreliable and lacking in credibility”.
While the man “openly admitted” in his evidence that he sexually assaulted his niece and another young girl on numerous occasions, he did not appear to believe what he had done was wrong or that his actions damaged the girls. He also showed no real regret for his actions.
The man had described what he had done as “messing” and appeared to have “the alarming view” this was not inappropriate since he claimed the girls were 15 or 16 years old when it happened.
The judge rejected the man’s claims he had consensual sexual intercourse with the plaintiff when she was 15 or 16 years of age and was unaware his actions were unlawful. The plaintiff was a 12-year-old child when the first assault occurred and was 14 when her uncle first raped her and the sexual intercourse was not consensual, the judge said.
The judge said nothing could recover for the woman the years she had lost and her relationship with her family was also profoundly and adversely affected because of the abuse. He awarded general damages and compensation of €300,000.
Arising from the man’s conduct of the case, including his claim the woman fabricated the case to get money, she was entitled to additional aggravated and exemplary damages of €50,000, the judge ruled. This was for the “added hurt and insult caused by the man’s outrageous allegations”, to mark the community’s disapproval of such conduct and to deter him and others from similar conduct in the future.