A Belfast man who sexually abused a child and went on to abuse the daughter of another woman he had a relationship with, videoing her ordeal, was jailed for 12 years yesterday.
Belfast Crown Court judge Lord Justice Gillen told the 51year-old Shankill Road man, who cannot be named to protect his victims' identities, that it "beggars belief that you apparently participated in the offences against one of these children because, according to you, you wanted to gain revenge on her mother."
Lord Justice Gillen said the man had exploited his "weak and defenceless victims" and he had "used these children for your own perverted pleasures and sense of revenge over a lengthy period - caring nothing for the stress and harm you might cause to these little girls".
He said the court's function was to protect vulnerable children. An object of his sentence was to "deter other men from acting in this way - the court must mark its disapproval, and the disapproval of the community".
Mr John Creaney QC, prosecuting, said the offences came to light in March last year when the mother of a 13-yearold found a video of her daughter being sexually abused by the man living with them. As a result of further RUC inquiries, a complaint was made by the daughter of a previous partner of the man.
Mr Creaney said the man was having a "liaison" with the girls' mothers and had abused the first youngster from February 1977 to February 1982, when she was aged between six and nine, and then began sexually abusing the second girl from the age of eight, between November 1992 until March 1998.
The man pleaded guilty to 30 charges, including indecent assaults and inciting gross indecency involving both girls, and four attempted rapes and the taking of indecent photographs of the second girl.
Ms Eilish McDermott QC, defending, said the man deeply regretted his actions.