A Cork newspaper van driver who raped and sexually abused his daughter for many years has been jailed for nine years by Mr Justice Carney at the Central Criminal Court.
The victim told the court: "That man took my innocence, took away my childhood and took away my life. I will never forgive him and I don't accept his apology. I want my life to start from tomorrow".
Mr Justice Carney said the woman's evidence about the effect the abuse had on her ensured the sentence was higher than it might otherwise have been.
The victim and the family were clearly terrified of the defendant to this day. She had been subjected to sexual touching on a daily basis for many years and estimated her father raped her up to 40 times but that was probably a conservative estimate.
If he had been convicted by a jury the sentence would have been well into double figures but because a guilty plea had been entered the final year of the rape sentence was suspended. The 55-year-old man pleaded guilty to two sample charges of raping his daughter on dates in 1986 and 1989, and two sample charges of indecent assault on her in 1980 and 1986.
Det Garda Tim Sullivan agreed with Mr Brendan Grehan BL (with Mr Blaise O'Carroll SC), defending, that it was "inconceivable" the victim's mother did not know what was happening. She would send the victim up to her father in bed at his request when he came in from work.