A man who was found guilty of having sex with his mentally impaired cousin has been jailed for five years at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court.
The 50-year-old Dublin man had pleaded not guilty to eight charges of having sex with a mentally impaired woman between 1998 and 2003. He was found guilty by a jury after a four-day trial last April.
The trial heard the man told gardaí he was in a sexual relationship with his 44-year-old cousin but he had no knowledge that she had a “mental handicap”.
Judge Patricia Ryan said the offences warranted a custodial sentence as the acts were “planned and premeditated over a five-year period”.
“The position of trust has been abused and he gave her alcohol on her arrival to his house,” said the judge.
A victim impact report, read out on the victim’s behalf, said that since the incident was reported to gardaí, some family members had fallen out and she had had “no family support since the crime”. She said she felt she had been punished for a wrong she did not do.