A man who habitually raped and assaulted his wife, subjecting her to “25 years of hell”, during which he would break into their house in the middle of the night and rape her, has been jailed for life.
Imposing the sentence on Tuesday, Ms Justice Melanie Greally said the victim was subjected to a “litany of physical and sexual abuse” throughout her marriage.
She said the victim impact statement conveyed the “unending nightmare” the woman had endured and the “vast damage” caused to her by her husband.
The judge said the court recognised the immensity of the woman's suffering and the vast damage that her husband “wilfully and sadistically” caused to her.
The 67-year-old Carlow man had pleaded guilty at the Central Criminal Court to 12 sample counts including nine of rape, two of sexual assault and one of assault causing harm.
All the offending took place at the family home on dates between 1991 and 2015. He cannot be named to protect the victim's anonymity.
He had been due to stand trial in relation to a total of 52 counts including rape, sexual assault and assault causing harm earlier this year, but the guilty pleas to 12 counts were accepted by the Director of Public Prosecutions on a full facts basis, with the remaining charges to be taken in consideration.
Ms Justice Greally said the rapes were “of the most egregious kind” and noted there were multiple aggravating factors, including the severity of the offending, its prolonged nature and the “immense breach of trust”.
The judge also noted the regularity of the offending and that it was committed for “excitement and sexual pleasure”.
She noted “the use of gratuitous violence” which often took a “cruel and sadistic form” and that the offending occurred in the family home with acts of violence in the presence of children.
She set a headline sentence of life for the rape offences due to these aggravating factors and “the incalculable harm” caused to the victim and the family unit.
Ms Justice Greally noted the mitigation and the man's personal circumstances. She said the guilty plea came at a late stage, weeks before the trial had been due to start and that up until this point, the victim had faced the prospect of giving evidence.
Having considered the mitigation, Ms Justice Greally said the man must face the “full consequences of his deplorable actions”.
Imposing the life sentence, the judge said the court was “satisfied that the prolonged and brutal nature of the offending was so extreme and exceptional that the mitigation is not sufficient to merit any reduction of sentence”.
In an impact statement read to the court during a previous hearing by prosecuting senior counsel Paul Murray, the woman said she had been given a life sentence and “cannot make a deal and in a few years, I get to be free”.
“We will never be free from the hell you put us through”.
Addressing the man, she said: “When I walked down the aisle to marry you, I thought I was walking to meet my partner, the one I could count on, someone to share a family with, go through good and bad times with. I didn’t get that man.
“I met a monster, one who would destroy our dreams beyond repair.”
She continued by saying that he was “always going to be the monster under the bed, but I won’t let you be the monster in my head”.
25 years of hell
She said the man put her through “25 years of hell” and said she often thought about letting herself die so the pain would end, but she knew she couldn't die and leave their children with him.
“We escaped you and I feel lucky we did. My only regret is that we didn’t do it sooner”.
An investigating garda told the court that the man began to rape the victim in the early stages of their marriage, with the sexual abuse occurring regularly.
The victim said the man would rape her as a form of blackmail, including for money to feed their children.
She described some incidents of rape as like a “monster under the bed”.
She said the man had a habit of leaving the house and coming back in the middle of the night. He would then wait at the bottom of the bed like an intruder until she woke up, then he would rape her.
She also outlined occasions when the man would break into the house, then rape her. On other occasions, he would appear naked, then rape her. The man would also rape the woman, then assault her.
The court heard the rapes were most frequent during the early years of their marriage. The victim told gardaí that the man became more excited the more she struggled and when she showed signs of injury or distress.
The abuse also included oral rape, attempted rape and sexual assaults.
The court heard there was a three-year break in the man’s offending between 2001 and 2003.
It started again after the man suggested a “masterplan” where he would give his family money for food, but they would have to “beg” for anything else and his wife would be “his sex slave”. She refused to accept this, the court heard.
The final rape took place in 2012 and the last sexual assault in 2015.
The woman applied for a barring order against the man in 2015 and sometime later made a complaint to gardaí.
She said she considered applying for a barring order earlier in the marriage, but was afraid of what the man might do and she did not want her children to be at school without their father.
The man was arrested in December 2018 and denied the allegations of rape. He has three previous convictions, including for sexual offending dating back to the 1970s.
Pattern of violence
There was also a frequent pattern of physical violence in the marriage. Gardaí obtained the woman’s medical records as part of their investigation, which showed a number of incidents of cuts and injuries to her fingers. She lost a tooth in 2004, which her daughters told gardaí was caused by a blow to her face.
The woman's daughters recalled constant violence, including their mother being kicked in the stomach and her fingers being bent back until they snapped.
One of the woman’s daughters told gardaí that from an early age, she couldn’t “remember anything but domestic violence” and recalled one occasion where she saw her mother crawling from a bedroom to the bathroom, bleeding.
Another daughter gave a statement saying that she once told a friend: “Back in a minute, Daddy is strangling Mammy against the hot press.”
Victim Impact Statement
In her victim impact statement, the woman said the man made sure they “had no one” and were isolated from family and friends.
“You made sure we lived in that hellhole with you as the king of us... and made sure [our] daughters saw you beating me”.
Addressing the man, she said: “Me and my beautiful daughters will get through this... You are a monster that put us through hell but we continue with our lives.”
She said she would never forgive him for what he had put their children through, but despite his actions, they had turned out “wonderful”.
The court was told that the Director of Public Prosecutions places this case in the highest sentencing category due to the longevity of the offending, the associated violence and the “element of perversion” involved in some of the sexual assaults.
Defence senior counsel, John D Fitzgerald, said a probation report found his client had limited insight into his offending, but asked the court to take into consideration that the man has accepted his wrongdoing and pleaded guilty, avoiding “what would have been a difficult and distressing trial for all parties”.
The man spent periods of his early life in psychiatric hospitals, but has no specific diagnosis. He was “someone who never did or could work in a meaningful way”, counsel said, noting his client received disability allowance payments.
Mr Fitzgerald also asked the court to take into account his client's age and health difficulties, which include COPD.
Ms Justice Greally on Tuesday also noted the contents of the probation report, which states the man has little or no insight or understanding into the harmful nature of his actions and the damage he has caused, and that he sought to deflect responsibility onto the victim.
The report also stated that the man had been engaging in “sexually deviant” behaviour from an early age and displaying hostility towards women, the judge said, noting that he is assessed at medium to high risk of re-offending.
She said two testimonials submitted by the man's brother and niece couldn't be given much weight by the court as their observations were based on limited contact with the defendant.
The judge also imposed concurrent sentences of four years in relation to the sexual assault and assault causing harm charges.
She directed that the man should be subject to a two-year post-release supervision order in the event that he is released “in his lifetime”.
If you have been affected by any of the issues raised in this article, you can call the national 24-hour Rape Crisis Helpline at 1800-77 8888, access text service and webchat options at drcc.ie/services/helpline/ or visit Rape Crisis Help.
