A 55 YEAR OLD man told a young girl he was indecently assaulting she would be taken from her home and put into care if she told anyone about the incidents.
Edward McConville, from Neilstown, Bohermeen, Navan, Co Meath, had pleaded guilty at the district court to three sample charges and was sentenced to a total of five years by Trim Circuit Criminal Court yesterday.
The charges related to indecent assaults on dates unknown between 1981 and 1984. When they began, the injured party was 10 years old. Passing sentence, Judge Patrick Smith referred to parts of the victim's statement which had not been read out in court.
She told gardai that during one assault he had locked the door to, the room, put his hand over her mouth and interfered with her. He told her not to tell anyone or she would be taken out of her home and put into care. She never told anyone because she believed that she would be sent away.
The court heard other details about the incidents and that the defendant had made her watch pornographic videos, made her wear underwear he bought and had assaulted her when she was staying overnight in his house. A consultant psychiatrist said the victim was now 26 years of age and expressed the view that the sexual abuse has affected her ability to have secure relationships, particularly with the opposite sex. The defendant had worked in the United States for nine years and then got a job in Meath. He told gardai the reason for the assaults was the way he reacted to coming back from the US. He began to see a psychiatrist for schizophrenia.
Last week, the court remanded him in custody for sentence and Mrs Josie McConville, wife of the defendant, said he was in tears when she first visited him in prison. She said he had asked to be left out of his cell so he could kill himself. The effect on her four children had been terrible.
Judge Smith said that as the father of a young girl of the same age as the victim, he should have appreciated how wrong and harmful such assaults are. He imposed two sentences of four years and one of 12 months and refused leave to appeal.