This article is from page 10 of the 2006-06-20 edition of The Clare People. OCR mistakes are to be expected so download the original SWF or the rendered page 10 JPG
A CLARE man described by his daughter as “a monster who should serve life” has been jailed for seven years for sexually abusing her, her own daughter and her sister.
“I am so glad my daughter was brave enough to come and speak to me about his abuse of her,” the woman told Dublin Circuit Criminal Court.
She said she had “buried his abuse” for years until her daughter revealed he had also abused her and, as a result, “everything came back to me.”
She then spoke to her sister who said he also abused her as a child. “It became clear we were living with a monster,” she told Judge Michael White.
She said her teenage years were disturbed as a result of her father abusing her and he had destroyed her opportunities in life. Her own daughter had her innocence taken away by him and was “angry and sad” at learning it had happened to her own mother.
“The effects have been massive. He should be jailed for life because he has hurt so many people,” she said.
The 55-year-old man, who cannot be named for legal reasons, pleaded guilty to 14 counts of sexual abuse of his daughters on dates in 1981 and 1983, and of his granddaughter in 1995.
Judge White imposed a total of seven years imprisonment in consecutive sentences and directed that he undergo four years post-release supervision. He also placed him on the register of sexual offenders.
Psychologist, Michael O’Toole, said the man had a limited understanding of the impact his offending had on others.
“It is very hard to get any sense of feeling of emotion from him. He appears to be very shut off from emotion,” Mr O’Toole said.
He thought the man was at a medium risk of re-offending while off alcohol, but would be a higher risk if he began drinking again.
Peter Finlay, SC, for the accused, said nothing he could say “could take away from the cruelty” inflicted on the victims by his client who had instructed him to convey his regret and sorrow for his offending.