THE 52-YEAR-OLD man convicted two weeks ago of the rape and sexual assault of his son will be sentenced on Friday.
The man cannot be named to protect the identity of his victim and other family members.
On January 15th he was convicted of rape and sexual assault of the boy on dates between April 11th, 2001, and June 23rd, 2004, when his son was aged between 12 and 15. He is now 20.
In January 2009 his wife and the mother of their six children pleaded guilty to incest with another son, and to neglect of all the children. She was sentenced to seven years for incest.
During the man’s trial the court heard that the family was first brought to the attention of the social services in 1989. In 2000 an injunction was granted to the mother in the High Court preventing the health board from taking the children from her. It was 2004 before the children were taken into care. How the family was dealt with by the health board is the subject of an inquiry under the chairmanship of Norah Gibbons of Barnardos.
Yesterday Mr Justice Barry White heard submissions on sentencing from the prosecution and the defence, along with a victim impact statement from the son.
The young man said: “I can’t say when my childhood started or finished because as far as I’m concerned I never had a childhood.
“The only happy memories I have of [father’s name] as a child were when he took me fishing and playing pool in the pub. The pub was the centre of everything else. We went to the pub after my first Holy Communion and Confirmation.
“He never showed me how to do anything, just told me to do it and I did it. I did it out of fear. It is an awful thing to live in fear. I never knew what answer to give him. What I thought was the right answer could be the wrong one depending on the mood he was in.
“I knew while going to national school and talking and listening to other children that I was different and things at home were different. The other children were happy going home, going different places with their parents, having nice lunches at school, being clean and tidy, but I had nothing to look forward to going home and things got a lot worse for me when I left national school. It was then the real nightmare began when [he] started sexually abusing me.
“All my life I had lived in fear of [father’s name], threats not to give information to social workers, threats when he came from the pub, threats not to tell teachers or anyone outside the house what was going on at home. Sometimes he did not have to say anything because I knew by that look on his face. Every time he sexually abused me he told me not to tell anyone. I didn’t because I knew what would happen if I did.
“My aunt and uncle [their names], whom I now live with, have been very good to me and the rest of my family all our lives. As far as I am concerned they are my parents. Again during the trial it was brought up how I made a false allegation against [my uncle] back a number of years ago. I did make this false allegation but it was [father’s name] who made me do it so that [aunt and uncle] would not be able to get custody of me and the rest of my family.I feel different to other people of my age.
“I feel I will always have a stigma attached to me with people saying things like, “that’s the lad was abused by his father”. I still have nightmares reliving him raping me, sometimes have trouble going to sleep and the fact I was forced to give evidence because of the stance he took at the trial has brought it all right to the surface again.
“I have referred throughout this report to this man here in court as [father’s name]. I can’t even bear to call him my father. I hate the man and I want to tell him here now today that I will never forgive him for what he did to me and the way he ruined my life. He has given me a life sentence and I feel he should also be given a life sentence, a life sentence behind bars where he belongs.”