A 48-YEAR-OLD married Mayo man has been jailed by Mrs Justice McGuinness for 12 years for incest and raping two of his daughters.
The man, who cannot be named for legal reasons, was convicted by a jury at the Central Criminal Court after a seven-day trial last month. He had pleaded not guilty to 51 charges of rape, unlawful carnal knowledge and indecent assault on his two daughters between January 1978 and December 1989.
Mrs Justice McGuinness said he had been convicted by the jury of very serious offences, which he denied during his trial and continued to deny. "He was in a position of dominance and bullied members of his family with physical and sexual violence towards his daughters, but deprivation and poverty cannot be excused for violence." The judge said she was concerned about his wife's evidence, minimising what had happened. Sgt Justin Clarke told prosecuting counsel Mr Michael Durack SC that the defendant was known for many years to gardai as a drinker and wife-beater. When arrested, he denied all the allegations. The victims were strong young women and were coping well with the situation.
Sgt Clarke agreed with defence counsel Mr Patrick McCarthy SC that the man moved out of the family home after the Western Health Board sought an order relating to his youngest daughter.
The jury heard the victims relate a story of sexual and physical degradation. The family had moved to a cottage in a rural area in the late 1970s. The cottage was owned by the defendant's mother and was very basic, having no toilets or proper electrics.
One of the victims, now 29 and married with two children, said she was aged about 10 when her father forced her to have sex with the family's terrier. He gave her a choice on other occasions of having sex with the dog or with him.
"I would cry out `Daddy' as the dog was always killing rats. I didn't want to catch any diseases," she said.
She told the jury her father took "every chance he got" to abuse her and one of her younger sisters. She suspected her mother knew about the abuse. Her earliest memories were of her father coming home drunk and beating her mother.
The defendant abused her and her sister in a bedroom, a barn or behind a bush in a bog. "Anywhere he would get a chance he would take it," she said.
She added: "From the time he began to abuse me, when I was aged nine or 10, I knew it was wrong because it just didn't feel right. I said `you are my daddy and should not be doing things like this to me'. I used to cover my eyes and he would tell me to stop crying."
The second victim, now aged 28, told the jury she had been raped by her estranged husband, whom she married when she was 16. "He was like my father. He raped me as well," she said.
She agreed with Mr Durack that the separation from her husband had become very bitter.
She said she was seven when her father began abusing her. "He'd have a go at me maybe four or five times a week. He would have a choice between me and my sister." The abuse involved oral sex, and stopped when she was 14. She left home two years later and married.