A 24-year-old heroin addict who pulled off all the finger and toenails of a four-year-old girl has been jailed for four years by Judge Dominic Lynch at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court. Robert Hughes also used a Swiss army knife to pull out the toenail of a six-month-old baby.
Hughes beat the four-year-old when she screamed in pain. He later told gardai that his head was "wrecked" with heroin at the time. He told the court he believed his actions were "disgusting". He wanted to commit suicide after the attacks.
Mr Fergal Foley, prosecuting, said the assaults were "truly horrendous and absolutely appalling". He apologised to Judge Lynch for having to show him photographs of the injured girls.
Hughes, of Sheepmoor Gardens, Clonsilla, Dublin, pleaded guilty to two counts of assault causing serious harm at his home on March 12th, 1998. Sgt Eugene O'Sullivan said Hughes had had a relationship with the girls' mother since 1996 and was the father of the six-month-old. The girls' mother returned from England to attend her brother's funeral in March 1998.
Hughes agreed to baby-sit the girls at his home in Clonsilla where he lived with his parents. Hughes said in a statement he injected two £20 deals of heroin and returned to the house. He put the four-year-old in his bed and the six-month-old in a pram in the corner.
He talked to the four-year-old about England and asked her to put out her hand because her fingernails were too long. He was unable to bite off one of her fingernails with his teeth and then started to pull out all her fingernails with a Swiss army knife.
"I held the blade to the side of the nails and I just pulled them back," he read. "She kept pulling back her hand and complaining that it hurt her but I continued." He then lifted back the bedclothes and pulled off all her toenails.
Later, he pulled a toenail off the six-month-old baby while she screamed. Hughes said he tried to stop the four-year-old from bleeding and she started to cry. He told her he would kill her if she did not shut up and hit her twice in the face.
Sgt O'Sullivan said Hughes left the house next morning to continue his work distributing leaflets. The girls were discovered by Hughes's mother. She took them to Temple Street Children's Hospital, where a doctor reported the injuries to the gardai.
An aunt of the two girls said they had nightmares for months after the attacks but seemed to have coped well since. The four-year-old still had occasional nightmares, but had settled into school life.
Hughes told the court he had been on heroin for 18 months before the assault on the girls. "I can't explain what happened. I just cut them. I didn't realise what I what doing."
Asked by Mr Aidan Walsh SC (with Mr Alan Toal), defending, what he had to say to the girls, he replied: "I don't think there are words I would be able to say."
He said he thought about killing himself later that night, and has stopped taking all drugs since.
Hughes's mother said she confronted her son when he returned home on the day after the assault. He ran upstairs, and when she followed him, he told her that he was going to hang himself. She replied: "Maybe that's the best thing for everyone."
Judge Lynch said he could not ignore the seriousness of the assaults. In mitigation, Hughes had no previous convictions and had made a full confession. The judge recommended he be given help to end his heroin addiction while in prison, and declined leave to appeal the severity of the sentence.