A Clare man who sexually abused his partner's daughter from the age of six was jailed for 10 years by Judge Diarmuid O'Donovan yesterday. The defendant, in his 50s, was refused leave to appeal his conviction and the severity of sentence.
In March, a jury in the Central Criminal Court found the man guilty on six charges.
He was convicted of raping and indecently assaulting the girl in 1989 and again in 1990, indecently assaulting her in 1987 and sexually assaulting her in September 1995. The jury failed to agree a verdict on a charge that he anally raped her during the September 1995 incident.
The 16-year-old victim, giving evidence by video-link, told Mr Denis Vaughan Buckley SC, prosecuting, she left the family home in September 1995 because the defendant had continually sexually abused and anally raped her. The abuse started three days after her sixth birthday and the abuse kept going on "once or twice a week" involving both vaginal and anal rape, she said.
The defendant denied all her claims in evidence and said he did not know why she was making the claims of abuse. The court heard he had not shown any remorse since his conviction. He originally faced 12 charges of rape, anal rape, indecent and sexual assault on unknown dates in 1987, 1989, 1990 and in September 1995. Five charges were withdrawn after legal argument.