A man charged with 173 counts of rape, oral rape, anal rape and sexual assault of three children over the course of a decade has been given a 15-year sentence.
Mr Justice Paul Carney said the case involved “nearly every form of depravity it is possible to perpetrate on children”.
The 61-year-old man, who cannot be named to protect the identities of his victims, pleaded guilty at the Central Criminal Court to all offences committed at various locations between 2001 and 2010.
The man has two previous convictions for sexual offences.
Children's mother
The court heard the sexual abuse began when each of the three siblings reached the age of six or seven. The man was in a relationship with the children's mother.
The rapist introduced the youngest victim to a friend of his who sexually assaulted her. He also raped one of the victims in front of another friend.
Neither the boy nor his two sisters were aware the others were also being abused.
Mr Justice Carney said he was taking into account a range of factors including the breach of trust, the victims’ ages, the multiplicity of victims and offences, the effect on the children, the relevant previous convictions and the involvement of other men in some of the offences.
Mr Justice Carney imposed a 15-year sentence and suspended the final three years taking into account the man's guilty plea. Harrowing victim impact statements for each of the three victims, now in their late teens and early 20s, were read out in court.
Innocence stolen
The siblings said their childhood was ruined and their innocence stolen. They remain terrified of swimming pools, caravans, graveyards, bogs and other places where they were raped and assaulted.
The eldest sister said she felt so alone and afraid as a child and that she had no one to turn to.
“I felt like it was my fault. I trusted him and he let me down and hurt me in the worst possible way,” she said.
A local garda told Aileen Donnelly SC, prosecuting, that the man had a relationship with the children's mother for many years.
'Element of fear'
The court heard that as soon as he moved into the children's home, he established a "pattern of control" and created an "element of fear" that was evident in the abuse. The garda agreed that each child was subject to a "regime of continuous abuse" for almost a decade.
As it continued, the abuse escalated and included the girls being forced to watch pornography and undergo rapes.
The offences took place in numerous locations including their mother’s bedroom, bathrooms, on holidays in a caravan, in disabled toilets, in a bog, in the back of a car and in cubicles at public swimming pools.
On several occasions, he took one of the girls to his friend’s house and raped her while his friend watched.
When the three children made complaints to gardaí and the accused was arrested, he denied everything.
At the end of a long interview process he accepted the children were telling the truth, but said he could not remember any of the incidents. He also denied knowing his two friends who had taken part in the abuse.