A 79-year-old Donegal man has been jailed by the Central Criminal Court in Dublin for seven years for the rape and sexual abuse of his daughter over an 11-year period. The woman is now 43.
Mr Justice Carney suspended the final four years, taking into account the defendant's advanced age, his deteriorating health and mental state and his guilty plea.
Ms Grainne McMurrow SC, defending, said that while the blame for these events rested solely with the defendant, if the neighbours, teachers or church had not averted their eyes it might have changed the situation.
She said the defendant wished to apologise unreservedly to his daughter for the appalling childhood she had suffered at his hands and hoped his guilty plea would in some small way liberate her emotionally and give her a sense of vindication.
The defendant has pleaded guilty to one count of incest, 10 of rape, three of indecent assault, four of buggery, one of false imprisonment, one of assault causing harm and one of possession of a firearm on dates between 1964 and 1975, when his daughter was aged between four and 15 years.
Mr Justice Carney said one incident where the defendant tied his daughter to the bed with baling twine went beyond sexual abuse and almost amounted to torture.
He said that while the courts were currently dealing with the problem of sentencing elderly offenders, neither the Irish or English courts declined to hand down sentence.
He said he had recently sentenced offenders in their 70s and had inspected facilities for elderly prisoners at the Curragh Prison and found them humane.
The woman said that when she was asked to write a report on the effect her father's abuse had had on her life, she could only give in an empty book as he had stolen her childhood, and this expressed the empty life she had had. She said the nuns had told her she was "evil", too evil to make her First Communion.
One nun told her she would "wash her soul clean of sinning" and as she was sinning "down there", that was where she would wash her.
She was separated from the other children in school because she was sent in without any underwear and was also made to wear a dunce's hat.
She said her mother knew what was happening but just watched, and her teachers watched her come into school covered in bruises.
She added that when she went to the gardaí and they believed what she told them, it did a lot to help her as she did not think anyone would believe her.
She is also grateful for having met someone who could "really, really believe me".
Det Garda Brenda Gillispie told Mr Patrick McCarthy SC, prosecuting, that the defendant had told them he started "experimenting" with his daughter when she was sleeping in his bed during the time his wife was ill.
The defendant told gardaí that he thought she had forgotten what he had done to her as she never mentioned anything when they met on the street after she moved out of the house.