A Kerry father who inflicted sexual abuse and torture on his daughter over a 10-year period was jailed for 12 years yesterday. Prior to sentence the 19-year-old victim, who took an overdose of pills in October 1996 and again in 1997, told the Central Criminal Court she forgave her father.
She said: "As a child I saw my father as a hero. My love for him was used to manipulate me. I can't understand why my daddy would do this to his little girl. I don't hate him, I hate what he did to me."
"My father never said sorry for ruining my childhood but despite this, I forgive him," she added. She is now living away from the family home.
Mr Justice O'Donovan said the man had subjected his daughter to the unspeakable offences and had probably caused her irreparable damage. But because of the man's guilty plea and his very late expression of remorse, the final four years of the sentence were suspended.
The judge delayed his sentence for a few moments when told the defendant was too distressed to address the court.
After a short adjournment, the defendant entered the witness box to express his love for his daughter and to thank her for her forgiveness. In March, the man pleaded guilty to indecently assaulting her on an unknown date from October to December 1985; sexually assaulting her on a date from April to June 1991; raping her in January 1994 and committing an aggravated sexual assault against her in 1995.
He had originally pleaded not guilty to 48 charges of rape, oral rape, aggravated sexual assault, sexual assault and indecent assault of his daughter from 1985 to 1996.
After his daughter gave her direct evidence, but before she was to be cross-examined Mr Anthony Sammon SC (with Ms Mary Ellen Ring), defending, her father pleaded guilty.
The victim told Mr Michael McDowell SC (with Mr Fergal Foley) prosecuting, that she had assumed the abuse was normal. She had thought the world of her father who had reared her alone since she was aged two when her mother left the family. The abuse started in 1985 when she was about six when her father made her re-enact earlier sexual abuse she and her brothers had suffered at the hands of another person.
Her father's abuse continued a couple of times a week until 1996 and included frequent bondage sessions.
At the age of 15 she had to have sexual intercourse with him on his birthday to prove her love "beyond all doubt". All the abuse took place when her father's girlfriend was out of the house. In a plea for leniency, Mr Sammon said his client had no previous convictions but he recognised sexual offences were somewhat in a category of their own.
The defendant had not subjected his daughter to the ultimate indignity of being cross-examined.