Man who sexually abused his daughter and cousin 25 years apart is jailed

Isabel Hayes

A man who sexually abused his daughter and his young cousin in two separate incidents 25 years apart has been jailed for four years.

The 55-year-old Dublin man, who can't be named to protect the anonymity of the complainants, was found guilty by a Dublin Circuit Criminal Court jury of both counts against him following a trial last December.

He was found guilty of one count of indecently assaulting his younger cousin at an address in Dublin on a date between February 1987 and February 1990.

She was aged around four and six years' old at the time of the abuse, while he was aged between 16 and 19.

The man was also found guilty of sexually assaulting his 16-year-old daughter during a family holiday to Florida in the USA on a date in June 2014. He has no previous convictions.

The charges carry maximum sentences of 10 and 14 years respectively.

The man acknowledges the verdicts of the jury but continues to protest his innocence, defence counsel Brian McInerney told the court.

In relation to the abuse of his cousin, a local detective garda told Carol Doherty, prosecuting, that the little girl was staying over in the man's family home when she awoke to see him coming into her room.

He put his hands under the covers and touched her inappropriately, including digitally penetrating her, before leaving again.

The little girl was frozen in fear throughout, the court heard. When she summoned the courage to leave the room in search of the man's mother, she found him standing in the hall outside her room.

He told her he had thought she was asleep and, feeling intimidated, she returned to her bed.

In relation to the abuse of his daughter, the court heard the man separated from her mother when she was a baby and she visited him regularly. In 2014, she was invited on holiday with him and his new partner.

The trial heard that prior to this, the man had disciplined the girl in ways that made her feel uncomfortable.

During the holiday, the man entered the bedroom where his daughter was sleeping, surprising a female relative of his partner she was sharing the room with.

He repeatedly said: "I'm looking for my daughter" before he got into bed beside the girl and started "spooning" her and then sexually assaulted her as she lay paralysed in fear. When he made a comment about her private parts, the girl jumped out of bed and left the room.

Her father then followed her and suggested that they go skinny-dipping "like it was a game", the complainant told the trial. She made a move to go to his new partner's room to speak to her but her father's demeanour changed and he told her to get back to bed.

The court heard the girl expected the man's partner to ask her about the incident the next morning – given her relative had also been in the bedroom at the time. However, nothing was ever said.

In her victim impact statement, the man's daughter described how she spent years trying to maintain a relationship with her father, who went on to marry his partner and have two children with her. The young woman said she wanted to have a relationship with her younger siblings.

"All I wanted was for my dad to be my dad and for so long I clung on to hope," she said. "I wanted him to walk me down the aisle, I wanted him to be a loving grandfather to my children."

She said she eventually cut all ties with her father and as a result, no longer has contact with her younger siblings. "I feel as though I live in a constant state of grief, but I'm grieving people who are still alive."

She said the abuse has shaped how she parents her own children and she knows that one day when her own children ask about their grandfather, she will have to recount the pain he has caused.

"I live with the knowledge that abuse does not only come from strangers," she said.

She said she was happy the verdict was correct, but that telling her story to a room full of strangers was one of the hardest things she ever had to do. "This pain does not end with the court process," she said, adding she was left "heartbroken".

"I wish none of this had happened."

The first complainant who was abused in the late 80s told the court that when she heard what had happened to her younger relative, she felt "a strong moral obligation" to report what had happened so that no other children would be hurt by the man.

"It's impossible to explain the impact of child sexual abuse to a person who has not experienced it," she said, adding it changes one's relationship with the world and the people in it.

"It's hard to play again. Things are suddenly and permanently very serious and very scary and no-one is coming to save you," she said.

She said she was assaulted at a time when people didn't know how to respond, and after she disclosed the abuse there was a "terrible silence" for years.

She said she ultimately reported the abuse for other little girls. "I knew this (legal) process would cost me and it has," she said. "...I'm here to stop him hurting other little girls. I have played my role in letting people know the danger he poses."

Sentencing the man on Tuesday, Judge Jonathan Dunphy paid tribute to both complainants, whose statements he described as "honest, courageous and brave".

"I am encouraged and can only be impressed by the way the two victims have supported each other," he said, noting they displayed strength and determination throughout the trial.

He noted they are now parents themselves and have supports in place, "but at the time, they were innocent and vulnerable".

He said notwithstanding the fact the two offences occurred so far apart, they had striking similarities in that they took place in the victim's bed at night, involved touching the girls under their clothes and involved a level of "intimidatory" behaviour afterwards.

In relation to the first offence, he set a headline sentence of four years, which he reduced to two years, noting he must treat the man as possibly being a child during the offending period.

He said there was little in the way of mitigation given the man does not accept the verdicts of the jury and has shown no remorse or victim empathy as a result.

He suspended the final nine months of this sentence on a number of conditions, including that the man take part in sexual offence-focused work in custody.

In relation to the second incident, the judge noted this involved the sexual abuse of the man's vulnerable daughter while she was on a foreign holiday with him and his new partner and away from home.

He set a headline sentence of five years. He reduced this term to four years and suspended the final 15 months on similar conditions.

Judge Dunphy ordered that the sentences run consecutively, amounting to a sentence of four years. He ordered the man to have no contact whatsoever with either victim.

Defence counsel said there was little he could say in mitigation, given that the man still maintains his innocence. He has a long work history in the aviation sector but lost his job when he was convicted.

He noted that during the trial, the prosecution successfully applied to change the dates on the 1980s indictment – amending it from a 1989 date to a time period spanning 1987 to 1990.

He said this change meant the man was aged under 18 for part of this time period and as such, had to be sentenced as a child.

The man's wife was in court to support him throughout the trial and the sentence process.

If you have been affected by any of the issues raised in this article, you can call the national 24-hour Rape Crisis Helpline at 1800-77 8888, access text service and webchat options at drcc.ie/services/helpline/ or visit Rape Crisis Help. In the case of an emergency, always dial 999/112.