A 60-year-old Co Kildare man has been sentenced to eight years' imprisonment by Mr Justice Finnegan for raping his sister-in-law from her late childhood to late teenage years.
He was convicted by a jury of six men and six women at the Central Criminal Court in June on 14 sample charges covering dates from 1965 to 1972. The victim, now 44, told Mr Justice Finnegan that all she ever wanted was an apology from the defendant. The woman said she feared for other children in the extended family and felt that as a result of the jury's verdict "something bad has been stopped".
The judge said he considered eight years an appropriate sentence for the serious offences committed by the defendant. The evidence indicated he had raped the victim regularly and repeatedly over many years. The victim impact report indicated that the abuse left the victim suffering from depression and low self-esteem.
Mr Justice Finnegan said he took into consideration the defendant's age, that he had worked hard to support both his own family and the victim's, and had acted with great generosity towards her over the years. He had no previous convictions and there was no evidence to indicate he had offended in the last 28 years or was likely to reoffend.
The judge also noted the devastation caused by this to the man's own family, who spoke in glowing terms of him. He suspended the final four years on condition that he enter into a bond to keep the peace for five years.
Mr Justice Finnegan refused an application by Mr Gerard Clarke SC (with Mr John Major), defending, to postpone the sentence until November. He said he had to respect the jury's verdict and sentence should start immediately. He also refused leave to appeal.
The jury took almost four hours to convict him on 14 charges of raping the now-married woman and mother of a family. It returned two verdicts of guilty; 10 by 11 to one and two by 10 to two. The jury found the man not guilty on two other counts.
The victim told prosecution counsel, Ms Maureen Clark SC, (with Mr Roderick O'Hanlon), the abuse began when she was seven or eight and continued until she was about 17. She said he raped her so many times she couldn't remember all the incidents and considered killing him. When she tried to stab him he was wearing several jackets and the knife wouldn't penetrate.
She also described to the jury how she gave him a bread-and-jam sandwich with a wasp in it after she read that a sting could cause swelling and death, but his wife got him to a doctor in time. She said he first raped her around the time of her First Communion.
Other members of the woman's family told the jury they always noticed the accused seemed to have "a remarkable and almost unnatural attachment" to the victim over the years and insisted on bringing her everywhere with him.