A Belfast man who raped his eight-year-old niece will be sentenced by Mr Justice Patrick Smith in the Central Criminal Court in Dublin on Wednesday.
Defence counsel Mr Hugh Hartnett SC told Mr Justice Smith that his client had been sexually abused by his father before social workers in Belfast put him into care, where he had also been sexually assaulted.
The 31-year-old man, who cannot be named for legal reasons, was convicted last July, after a three-day trial, of raping and sexually assaulting his niece in his flat at Inchicore, Dublin, on dates from June 17th to August 8th, 1995. He denied the charges in evidence to the jury.
Det Garda Mary Ryan told Mr Justice Smith that the defendant was jailed for 10 months last year for sexually assaulting a 13-year-old niece of his former girlfriend.
The man's niece, in her evidence by video-link, told the jury that her uncle persuaded her mother to let him bring her to Dublin for a holiday.
He said he would bring her to Butlin's with his girlfriend and other children.
But they did not go to Butlin's. Nothing happened for the first few days, but later he joined her in a double bed, made her face him and, despite her protests, got her to move up and down on top of him.
Subsequently, he had full sexual intercourse with her. The girl told the jury she said nothing about the abuse to her mother in telephone conversations but would say she had a pain in her head and side. Her mother came to Dublin and brought her home to Co Down.
The defendant's former girl friend gave evidence for the prosecution and told the jury she had brought the child to a doctor during her stay in Dublin.
Garda Anne-Marie O'Sullivan told Mr Justice Smith the defendant was in Garda custody on the other sex assault matter when the rape complaint was made. It was investigated immediately. Mr Hartnett asked Mr Justice Smith to take into consideration, when sentencing, that his client came from a unionist area of Belfast which had a culture that would not be shared by his fellow-prisoners here. The Supreme Court had indicated that such factors could be considered in sentencing.
Counsel said the probation report showed the defendant suffered from depression and engaged in "self-destructive behaviour". It was obvious there was a relationship between his unhappy background and his offending and the probation officer noted he would require considerable "therapeutic intervention" before his release back into the community.