A MAN who repeatedly raped his wife and then perpetrated the same sexual violence on his two young daughters in a ‘breach of trust’ of ‘his own flesh and blood’ was jailed this week for 17 years.
BY OLIVIA KELLEHER
The 45-year-old, who can’t be named to protect the identity of his victims, had been charged with 185 counts of rape and sexual assault.
He pleaded guilty to sample counts and appeared before the Central Criminal Court in Cork.
His crimes covered a 15-year period. One of the man’s daughters was raped from the age of nine until she was 16, while the other was raped from the age of nine until she was 11.
One of the young women noted that inappropriate touching started after her she made her Holy Communion, with the abuse escalating from that point.
Ms Justice Mary Ellen Ring said that the man breached his position of trust in the family home to abuse vulnerable young girls and their mother in a ‘cold campaign’ of rape and sexual assault from 2004 to 2019.
Ms Justice Ring said that the man had given no indication that he understood the devastating impact his deviant actions had had on his family.
She said that the eldest daughter was subjected to rapes by her father for seven years, starting when she was just nine years old.
The violation of her person occurred hundreds of times. One of her most traumatic memories involved being preyed upon as she slept.
The abuse of the mother and eldest daughter was reported to gardaí in April 2020.
The man was still living in what was once his marital home. He was interviewed on five occasions and denied raping his eldest daughter.
He even suggested that he might have sleep-walked into their bedrooms. This was in spite of significant and damning forensic evidence in the case.
Ms Justice Ring said that the sexual violence against his now ex-wife took place in a coercively controlled relationship where she became ever more isolated as the years progressed.
Even when she became ill in the last few years of their marriage, he continued to rape her.
She was first raped by him in a hotel room following a wedding reception. He threatened to kill himself after she confronted him about it.
Ms Justice Ring said that the woman was raped three or four times a week for years. She learned not to react as it made him more excited.
When she told him she planned to leave, he threatened to kill himself or take their children away from her.
The man was listed to go on trial in relation to the rape of his second daughter last month.
As in the previous cases, he pleaded guilty at the latest opportunity he could to do so. Ms Justice Ring said that this young woman, who is still a teen, was raped by her father from the age of nine to 11.
All three women gave victim impact statements to the judge. The eldest daughter recalled showering and scrubbing herself to the point of bleeding, after being raped by him.
It was the source of much distress to her that he once bought her lingerie for her birthday.
She said that she never felt safe as a child. However, she now has good and bad days and views herself as a survivor.
The man’s ex-wife said that he robbed her of all of her confidence and self-worth and that she blamed herself for what he had done to their daughters.
She said that the emotional abuse continued even after she had left her husband. He told people in the locality of the allegations being made against him, thereby depriving her and her daughters of the right to anonymity in relation to the crimes perpetrated upon them.
She suffers from panic attacks following years of abuse.
The younger daughter of the man said that she was regularly raped from the age of nine to eleven. She is still in her teens but does not feel like a ‘normal teenager’.
Ms Justice Ring said that the man even used the young girl’s pets as weapons when they left the family home.
She now has new pets and is going to therapy. Ms Justice Ring wished all of the women well in the future having endured unspeakable behaviour while trapped in their family home.
“Their determination to bring the case forward is to applauded. None of these women bear any blame,’ she said. All of that rests on the defendant’s shoulders, she added.
He coldly engaged in a campaign of rape and sexual assaults on his wife and daughters from 2004 to 2019, during which time he threatened and manipulated them, and it had devastating effects on the family.
The man, who has no previous convictions, was jailed for 18-and-a-half years with the final 18 months suspended.
Ms Justice Ring directed that he follow all the conditions set out by the probation and welfare service following his release from prison.
The case was investigated by Det Sgt Elaine Scannell and Det Brian Morris of the Garda Protective Services Unit in Co Cork.
