A teenage girl who was sexually assaulted from childhood by her father and then raped told the Central Criminal Court she had to struggle not to kill herself by the time she was 16.
"He treated me like I was not a real person and didn't exist, like I was just this thing for him to enjoy. It was almost like being a body for a medical student," she told Mr Justice Carney, who jailed her father for nine years. He had admitted the offences.
The young woman said the abuse began when she was about seven and continued until she complained to the Garda last year. "He made it my fault. He told me I made him do it. I was racked with guilt by having him arrested and I still feel guilty because he has my mind so screwed up by telling me it would be my fault if he goes to prison," she added.
When she was 17 an item about this kind of abuse came on television and he said he never did anything like that. She told him "you raped me" and he screamed at her that it was "no big deal anyway". Mr Justice Carney said the only redeeming feature was that the man had pleaded guilty from the start and the court therefore suspended the final year.