A former postman who raped two sisters and sexually abused another sister over a number of years has been jailed for 20 years at the Central Criminal Court.
Michael Farrell Jnr (45), formerly of Davin Park, Mountmellick, Co Laois, and with a current address at Cromwellsfort House, Wexford, was given two consecutive sentences of eight years for the rapes and one of four years consecutive to them for the sexual assaults on the third sister.
"I am imposing the sentences consecutively to ensure that each victim's suffering is considered and punished for individually", Mr Justice Peart said.
Farrell was convicted by a jury last November on 11 charges of rape and 20 charges of indecent assault involving the three sisters who were aged between four and 14 years at the time.
Evidence was given by the sisters during the seven-day trial that Farrell sent them on small errands to the local shop after which he would invite them into his house at Davin Park, or to a flat there where he later lived, to abuse them. He offered them crisps as an enticement.
Farrell told gardaí when interviewed: "The abuse never happened with me. They were never in the house." The victims requested that Farrell be identified at his home addresses where he abused them between 1975 and 1984.
Mr Justice Peart said Farrell, despite being 15 years old at the time he started the offences against the girls, had exploited their young ages to his own advantage and had threatened them to such an extent against revealing his crimes that each of the girls had not known what he was doing to the others.
He also noted Farrell had neither shown remorse nor apologised for his actions and continued to maintain his innocence. By so insisting, he said, he had subjected the sisters, now aged 25, 34 and 36 respectively, to the added trauma of reliving their ordeal by giving evidence in court.
Mr Justice Peart said that given the length of the sentence he did not deem it necessary to order post-release supervision for Farrell.
He acknowledged that Farrell had suffered in his personal life as a result of the offences, having now lost the job at An Post he had held for 20 years.
He said he was also taking into consideration that Farrell's marriage has broken down since he was taken into custody in December last and acknowledged that adverse publicity surrounding the case had caused damages to the sales business he had set up since losing his job as a postman.
Mr Justice Peart said, however, a balance had to be found in imposing the appropriate sentence which adequately acknowledged the suffering of the three sisters.
The oldest of the two sisters whom Farrell raped - 10 times - told Mr Justice Peart the offences had affected her life to such an extent that she had spent six years in hospital undergoing psychiatric treatment and had attempted several times to take her own life.
She had also undergone 11 years of counselling and medication, and still continued to do so. Her continued hospitalisation enormously affected her own children whose care and upbringing had to be handed over to others for long periods of time.
The jury returned majority verdicts of 10-2 and 11-1 on 10 charges of raping that victim and on 10 of indecently assaulting her. It found him not guilty on one count each of rape and indecent assault in relation to her.
It also convicted Farrell on one count each of raping a second sister and indecently assaulting her, as well as on nine counts of indecently assaulting a third sister. It had deliberated for some seven hours over two days.