A woman whose stepfather put a dog lead around her neck and sexually assaulted her as a child has condemned him for betraying her love and trust.
George Crombie told his stepdaughter there would be "murder in this flat" if she told her mother about the abuse, which took place over a three-year period when she was aged between 10- and 13-years-old.
"How could I ever get over what my stepfather, who I loved and trusted, did to me as a 10-year-old girl," Laura Johnston, now in her 20s, told Dublin Circuit Criminal Court on Tuesday in her victim impact statement.
Crombie (47), with an address on Bloomfield Avenue, South Circular Road, Dublin 8, pleaded guilty to eight counts of sexually assaulting Ms Johnston in their Ringsend home between February 2004 and December 2006.
The court heard Ms Johnston had wished to waive her right to anonymity.
Garda Sandra Fitzgerald told the court that Crombie had been with Ms Johnston's mother since she was a small child.
The court heard that Ms Johnston thought Crombie was her real father until she was aged 10, when her mother told her he was in fact her stepfather.
When told the news, Ms Johnston showed her support for Crombie by ripping up her birth certificate, as it stated he was not her real father.
“She indicated she saw [Crombie] as her real father and she had no difficulty with the news she had received,” Dean Kelly BL, prosecuting, said.
However, shortly after finding out Crombie was not her father, he started acting differently towards her, the court heard.
“He started questioning her about her friends and boys,” Mr Kelly said.
Crombie then started going into Ms Johnston’s bedroom when her mother and siblings were asleep and touching her stomach, legs and bottom while she was lying in bed, the court heard.
The abuse happened every Thursday and Saturday night, after Crombie had been out drinking.
Ms Johnston believed he had a fetish for stomachs and bottoms, Mr Kelly said.
He said Ms Johnston said the abuse “became as regular as clockwork”.
On another occasion, Crombie put a dog lead around Ms Johnston’s neck while he sexually assaulted her.
On another occasion, the abuse took place as Crombie had a knife stuck in the waistband of his pyjama bottoms. Ms Johnston said she was “petrified”.
Eventually, when Ms Johnston threatened to tell her mother about the abuse, Crombie told her: “If you tell your mam there will be murder in this flat.”
The abuse stopped after this incident, Mr Kelly said.
Relationship breakdown
Shortly afterwards, the relationship between Crombie and Ms Johnston’s mother broke down and they split up.
Ms Johnston later confided in her mother about the abuse, who organised counselling for her. She went to gardaí in 2015.
“It has affected my relationship with my [half-]sisters, who don’t wish to believe the horrific truth of what their own father did to their sister,” Ms Johnston told the court.
Crombie made full and immediate admissions to gardaí when he was interviewed.
He has seven previous convictions for road traffic offences and larceny.
Dominic McGinn SC, defending, said Crombie was extremely remorseful for the “completely wrong, shameful and disgusting” offences he carried out on his stepdaughter.
He said Crombie had not shown any “proclivity” towards this kind of offending behaviour and has not carried out any other similar offences.
He said the catalyst behind Crombie’s offending behaviour was alcohol abuse, which he has since addressed.
“He has destroyed Ms Johnston’s childhood and perhaps her life,” Mr McGinn said.
“But he has since taken steps to address the root cause of that, which was his alcohol abuse.”
In Crombie’s defence, Mr McGinn said Crombie never touched Ms Johnston’s genitals during the abuse.
Judge Melanie Greally adjourned the matter for sentencing next Monday.