A Dublin man who admitted 210 charges of rape, incest, indecent assault and assault causing harm on his five daughters has been jailed for 15 years by Mr Justice Carney at the Central Criminal Court.
John Conry told his probation officer that "the sex was there for the taking and I took it", Mr Justice Carney noted. The court was told he had been sexually abused as a child by his mother.
Conry (54) began sexually abusing his daughters in 1976 in Ballymun when he worked as a CIE driver, and continued over the next 22 years when the family moved to Mountmellick and later to Rosenallis, Co Laois.
Conry's family told the media after the hearing that they had all agreed they wanted their father named in the court report but did not wish to make any further statement themselves.
Mr Patrick Gageby SC, prosecuting, said Conry and his wife operated an oppressive regime of unparalleled cruelty and physical abuse on their children. This included locking them up for a week on a diet of bread and water for slight family infractions.
Mr Gageby said the investigations indicated that Conry's wife was aware at least at the later stages of his sexual abuse of their daughters and assisted him in beating and brutalising them. Mr Justice Carney was told by Mr Gageby that the Director of Public Prosecutions had directed that Mr Conry's wife was not to be charged.
Conry pleaded guilty to 14 sample charges covering 1976 to 1988 but asked for all the offences to be taken into consideration.
Sgt Gerry Cawley said Conry readily admitted his offences against the first two daughters, who complained officially. He was arrested a second time when the other daughters complained or indicated offences in memorandums, and he admitted these matters also.
Sgt Cawley said the children's diet was restricted and they were often hungry. This led to them stealing food and being punished for it by their parents. Conry and his wife kept their own food locked away and the children would be severely punished if they went near it.
One of the victims cried while she told Mr Justice Carney that her father had destroyed her childhood and she hated him for what he had done to her and her sisters.
The judge said he recently described a similar case as one of the worst before him, but he had learned in the Central Criminal Court that such descriptions had a short shelf-life. The only thing that could be said in Conry's favour was his guilty plea. His expression of remorse offered through his counsel had come at a late stage.
Sgt Cawley said gardai were first notified of the offences in 1998 after two of the children contacted the Midland Health Board expressing their concern about two younger sisters. The eldest victim recalled both her parents being particularly cruel on the night after her First Holy Communion. She was sexually abused by her father for the first time when they lived in Ballymun and she was eight years old. Her father took her in a van to the Phoenix Park where he sexually assaulted her. He told her not to tell anyone.
Sgt Cawley said shortly after that he first had sexual intercourse with her and this became a regular routine. This victim attempted suicide and began running away from home. She slept rough sometimes in Merrion Square but would be taken home by gardai when found.
She got great support eventually from her husband-to-be and had made a good marriage.
Sgt Cawley agreed with Mr John Phelan SC, defending, that Conry's wife had had two serious brain operations and that he looked after her at home when she was discharged from Beaumont Hospital.