A Cavan man who developed "a distorted conception" of his niece as his "life's partner" has been jailed for 12 years by Mr Justice Paul Carney at the Central Criminal Court.
Charlie Dunne (65), Carnalynch, Bailieborough, raped and sexually assaulted his niece regularly from 1971 to 1982 in Cavan, Dublin and Wicklow.
The woman, who was first raped by Dunne about the time of her First Communion, told Mr Justice Carney she wanted him "publicly named and shamed" in the media. "The effects of what was done to me by this man led me to very nearly ending my own life."
In a victim impact statement, she said that Dunne as he stood before the court might appear "to be a harmless old man" but that was not how she remembered him. When he abused her he was "a vibrant, strong, younger man I was only a baby".
She added: "I am lucky to even be here today in person to see this process concluded." She had twice attempted suicide and wanted her uncle to be "publicly named and shamed".
Det Garda Gerald Barry said Dunne's abuse ended when she was almost 16 years old and told him that if he touched her one more time she would kill him.
Dunne pleaded guilty last July to four sample charges of rape and 10 of indecently assaulting her. There were some 80 charges on the indictment. He had no previous convictions before these matters or in the 25 years since he stopped abusing her.
Mr Justice Carney certified that he is to be registered as a sex offender. He said he found it hard to accept Dunne was genuinely remorseful because he spoke out of "one side of his mouth to psychologists in the Granada Institute but out of the other side to his lawyers in the judicial review courts".
He noted a recent Supreme Court judgment which agreed with decisions of his to impose life sentences even in cases where a guilty plea had been given, but after consideration he came to the conclusion that this case did not fit "exactly" into that category but "wasn't far from it".
He imposed a 12-year sentence on each rape charge and two years on each indecent assault, all to run concurrently. In view of the Granada Institute report and Dunne's age, he did not consider it necessary to make a post-release supervision order.
Det Garda Barry told Paul O'Higgins SC, prosecuting, that the victim lodged her complaint in 2001. She told how Dunne abused her in her own home, in other relatives' homes and in his car.
Det Garda Barry told Mr O'Higgins that Dunne first raped her about the time of her First Holy Communion when he got her to go up to the top of a haystack. She told gardaí it was the most painful experience of her life and she bled profusely.
He also raped her one Christmas Eve when she was too ill to go to Midnight Mass and got into her bed even though there were other relatives in the house at the time.
Det Garda Barry agreed with John Aylmer SC, defending, that gardaí called unannounced to Dunne's residence at about 7pm on March 28th, 2001, shortly after the victim lodged her complaint. He would not have known about her complaint or that the gardaí were coming.
Dr Jeanine de Volder from the Granada Institute said Dunne had responded well to treatment there and was very remorseful.
Dr de Volder said Dunne had developed what she described as "a distorted conception" of the victim as his "life's partner" from the time she was about five years old and from time to time he struggled with the realisation that what he was doing "was wrong and horrible".