A taxi-driver who sexually assaulted two young girls and threatened to kill their mothers if they told anyone has been jailed for four years.
Daniel Eastwood (45), a father of seven, originally from west Dublin and with a previous address at Main Street, Clonmellon, Co Westmeath, was convicted by a jury of four counts of sexually abusing one of the girls on dates unknown between May 1998 and July 2000 when she was aged between nine and 11.
Eastwood was also unanimously convicted of sexually assaulting her friend on two occasions between January 1997 and December 2001 and again between April and May 2002. The assaults took place when she was aged between 10 and 13.
Mr Erwan Mill-Arden SC, defending, told Dublin Circuit Criminal Court his client had had to change his address twice since his conviction.
Eastwood had two previous convictions dating back to the 1970s. The first was in 1975 when he was sentenced to two months at St Patrick's Institution for indecently exposing himself when he was aged 16 or 17. He was also jailed for 12 months in 1978 for indecently assaulting a woman as she walked along a canal bank.
Judge Kevin Haugh said the case involving the two young girls was a very serious one and noted they had been subject to an intimidation campaign to try to dissuade them from coming to court and telling the truth.
"I look upon this as a continuous and systematic programme of abuse against two young children," he said and refused leave to appeal against the severity of the sentence.