A 45-year-old man has been jailed for 17 years for the repeated rape of his wife and two of his young daughters at their family home in Co Cork over a 15-year period.
The man, who cannot be named to protect the anonymity of his victims, pleaded guilty to 26 sample counts from 185 counts on the indictment for crimes which occurred on various dates between 2004 and 2019.
Gardaí received complaints from the victims in 2020 and Det Sgt Elaine Scannell and Det Brian Morris of the Cork County Garda Protective Services unit investigated the case, where the injured parties outlined how they were abused by the accused.
The man’s eldest daughter was abused from the age of 10 until she was 16 and his younger daughter told how her father began raping her shortly after her First Holy Communion. She said she used to wake up in her bed to discover him raping her and it continued from the age of nine until she was 11.
The man denied the offences when he was arrested in 2020 but gardaí seized a number of items including vibrators from his home and forensic tests showed they contained the DNA of his wife, while bed clothes contained DNA of his older daughter.
On Monday at the Central Criminal Court, Ms Justice Mary Ellen Ring said the only mitigating factors were the accused’s plea of guilty, the fact that he had no relevant previous convictions and a psychological assessment that found he was at a low risk of reoffending.
But she said there were many serious aggravating factors, including the huge breach of trust in relation to his children and the humiliation and manipulation of his victims over a sustained period of almost 15 years where they were subjected to “unspeakable behaviour”.
She sentenced the man to 18 and half years on the charges, but suspended the last 18 months on condition that he remain under the direction of the Probation Services upon his release from jail. The sentences were backdated to February 2024 when the man first went into custody.
More to follow.
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