A Dublin man has been jailed for four years for subjecting his three daughters to "ferocious cruelty", which included tying them to a steel bed with socks and sexually assaulting one of them over a number of years.
The 48-year-old man pleaded guilty at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court to five charges of cruelty to the three children. He was found guilty by a jury last February of five charges of sexual assault on one of the girls. The offences took place on dates unknown between 1978 and 1992. He has five children, four girls and one boy, and has previous convictions dating back to the years 1963 to 1979 for trespassing and larceny.
Judge Frank O'Donnell told the defendant that he had perpetrated a reign of terror on his family and had traumatised one of his daughters by subjecting her to fierce cross-examination in denying the sexual assault charges.
Garda Fiona Fitzpatrick told Mr Paul McDermott SC, prosecuting, that one daughter suffered intense sexual assault between the ages of nine and 11. The girls were physically abused, kicked, punch ed and beaten if the house was untidy or their father was trying to sleep. At times the bruises were so serious one daughter could not swim.
Garda Fitzpatrick said he once tied two of his daughters to a steel bed with a pair of socks. On another occasion, when furious at the state of the house, he put a fridge and table on top of this daughter. As a result, she lost her hearing in one ear, but later regained it.
Garda Fitzpatrick told Mr McDermott she was uncertain about the defendant's claim that he thought it was his wife beside him in bed when he sexually abused the daughter. Judge O'Donnell commented that a different picture had been conveyed in a probation report.
Mr McDermott said it wasn't until one daughter complained to gardai that other facts emerged concerning her sisters. The defendant left the family home a few weeks prior to his daughter making the complaints.
Mr Brendan Grogan SC, defending, apologised on behalf of the defendant and said he accepted that his fierce discipline had caused a lot of grief to a lot of people.