Man sentenced to 12 years for rape of daughter with special needs

A Tipperary man has been sentenced to 12 years in prison for raping and sexually assaulting his special needs daughter in their family home.

The 56-year-old man, who cannot be named to protect the identity of his now 30-year-old daughter was convicted by a Central Criminal Court jury last July.

The court heard that the man twice raped his daughter in her bedroom when she was 22 years old after he asked her if she loved him or her mother more. He sexually assaulted her on that same occasion.

He also sexually assaulted her and made her perform oral sex on him when she was 13 or 14 years old and while she was sleeping in the same bed as her friend.

He was convicted on five charges including rape, oral rape and sexual assaults on dates between January 2003 and December 2004 and on a separate occasion in January 2011. He had denied the charges.

His two previous convictions are for assault and road traffic offences.

Ms Justice Eileen Creedon said the man still “steadfastly” denies the allegations and the fact that he has not accepted the jury’s verdict means that he has never acknowledged the hurt he caused his daughter.

The court heard during the trial that the woman withdrew some of the allegations having disclosed the rape to gardaí­ in 2011 but she claimed her father put her under pressure to do that.

Following her complaint to gardaí, the HSE instigated an investigation but the woman told a psychologist during this process that she had made up the allegations because she was cross with her father after he had taken her phone away.

The woman told the jury during the trial that she had said this to the psychologist because her father told her to say it and she was concerned her younger siblings would be taken away because of the rape claims.

On Monday Ms Justice Creedon noted that the man claimed his daughter’s motivation to make up false allegations was “revenge and jealousy”.

She said he could not benefit from mitigation that may have been afforded to him had he accepted the jury’s verdict and added that in “light of his denial” a probation report concluded that he was not interested in addressing his “sexual offending”.

The judge said the rapes occurred in the woman’s family home where she should have felt safe. She added that his offending was a violation of his daughter and represented a gross breach of trust.

Ms Justice Creedon registered the man a sex offender and suspended the final year of the 12 year sentence on strict conditions.

The man had initially pleaded not guilty to 32 counts of various sexual offences. Following legal submissions during the trial the judge directed the jury to find the man not guilty on 17 counts following legal submissions. The jury acquitted him on a further 10 counts following deliberations.

In her victim impact statement, the woman, who gave evidence via video link during the trial, said she felt “weird, upset and angry all the time”.

“I used to feel safe in my home but then I didn’t feel safe any more,” the woman said, adding that the rapes affected her emotionally and physically and that she felt anxious, depressed and suicidal.

“I had nobody to talk to. I felt so alone growing up. I was too afraid and couldn’t talk to anyone. I always had to lie and say I was fine. It made me angry that nobody saw what he was doing to me,” the woman said.