A woman who was raped by her older brother when she was a child disclosed the abuse to her family on the night of RTÉ's Late Late Toy Show in 2020 because she could not face another Christmas with him at the table.
The 36-year-old man was handed a sentence of nine years with the final year suspended for rape and sexual assault. The victim was about seven-years-old when the abuse started in 2001 while the defendant was 14. The abuse came to end in 2008 when he was about 20.
The man, who cannot be named to protect his victim’s identity, was convicted by a Central Criminal Court jury of two counts of anal rape and two counts of sexual assault. He pleaded guilty before the trial to three counts of sexual assault and to two counts of oral rape during the trial.
Imposing sentence on Monday, Mr Justice Paul Burns said the offences were of a “grave nature” and that the man took advantage of the age disparity between him and his sister, grooming her “to believe their relationship was normal”. He noted that the abuse escalated and included violence.
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Mr Justice Burns said the woman’s victim impact statement outlined the “profound and lasting” impact of the abuse. He said the complainant “had nothing to feel shame and guilt about as the responsibility lies solely with the accused”.
He said he had to take into account that the man was a juvenile during most of the offending, but it had continued over many years and the “offences can’t be treated as stand-alone”.
Mr Justice Burns noted that the man had accepted the verdict and apologised but said this would “carry more weight” if he had acknowledged his wrongdoing earlier.
The trial heard the defendant had a mini fridge in his room and used to offer his sister soft drinks if she came in.
In her victim impact statement, the woman, now aged 30, she said “the smell of vanilla coke turns my stomach”.
She said she realised during the trial the abuse had started at a very young age. “I was always a person who loved facts but these are ones I wished I’d never heard,” she said.
An investigating garda gave evidence that the woman told her family about the abuse in late 2020 on the night of The Late Late Toy Show because “she couldn’t face another Christmas” with her brother at the table. The garda said the abuse started with the brother digitally penetrating his sister when she was seven.
In 2021, the man made a statement to gardaí in which he admitted “there was sexual abuse”, but said there was no force used and denied the allegations of digital penetration and anal rape.
In mitigation, Tom Creed SC, defending, asked the court to consider his client’s young age at the time.
The man’s heavily pregnant wife gave evidence on his behalf, saying he is “not that person any more”. She pleaded with the judge “to let him return to his family soon”.
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