A “deviant father figure” who sexually abused his granddaughter and his nephew as part of a “campaign of rape” has been jailed for life.
The 66-year-old patriarch of the family and his three sons, aged 39, 40 and 41, were convicted of a total of 115 counts of sexually abusing four family members, who were all children at the time, following a Central Criminal Court trial last May.
His sons were last week given jail terms of between 11 years and 16-and-a-half years.
The man is already serving a 16-year sentence for sexually abusing his daughter, who became pregnant with his child when she was just 17. This baby was brought up by him and his wife as their own.
The man's 64-year-old wife was jailed last week for two years for assisting one of her sons after he anally raped her granddaughter and for one count of assaulting the same child.
The man was also due to be sentenced last week, but the court heard he was in hospital. He was found guilty of 24 charges, including two charges of anally raping his granddaughter and 22 charges against his nephew - 12 charges of anal rape and 10 charges of oral rape.
He does not accept the verdicts of the jury and continues to maintain his innocence, the court heard.
The three-week trial heard that the alleged offences occurred between 1999 and 2005 in various locations around the country. All of the parties are members of an extended Traveller family.
The four complainants in the case are the couple's daughter, their granddaughter and their two nephews, whom the couple fostered for a period of time.
Sentencing the man on Monday, Ms Justice Mary Ellen Ring said he was a “deviant father figure who abused and mistreated his wife and children, his grandchild and extended relatives”. “He was the father, not the grandfather, of his daughter's child,” she said.
“He ruled his family and his extended family unit with an iron fist,” she said. “The fear they felt was secondary to the physical invasion he carried out on their young bodies.”
Ms Justice Ring said the man has exhibited no remorse or acceptance for his offending against the young, vulnerable children in his care. She noted he was the girl's grandfather and was acting in loco parentis for his nephew at the time of the abuse.
“This case is encapsulated by the words of Mr Justice Charlton: he was engaging in a campaign of rape, which shows a particularly remorseless attitude,” the judge said.
“I can't think of more appropriate words to describe the years of violence and terror [perpetrated by the man].”
Ms Justice Ring set a headline sentence of life imprisonment. She ruled that the mitigating factors in the case – the man's age and health status – would not affect that headline sentence. Accordingly, she handed down life sentences for each of the offences.
The man made no reaction when the sentence was handed down.
In her sentence last week, the judge noted the children in the case “had their rights to be safe, to be fed, to be educated, to be protected breached over and over and over again”.
“They are here because they have faced their fears, faced down their abusers and reclaimed their self-worth from the people who paid no heed to their rights,” the judge said.
She said the case “raises serious questions as to how these children were left in the so-called care” of the man and his wife, where they were sexually abused and raped. “They lived a very basic and difficult life over the years,” the judge said. “Home was often the side of the road.”
She noted the children were often hungry and relied on the kindness of strangers. They had no access to consistent education and suffered “significant mistreatment and abuse”.
She said the patriarch of the family perpetrated violent and sexual abuse on his wife and child relatives. “He relentlessly preyed on family members with violence and deviance,” she said. “Chillingly, his sons learned to abuse and rape from their father.”
Victim impact statement
The man's granddaughter previously gave a victim impact statement, which was read out by Shane Costelloe SC, prosecuting. This woman was regularly abused by the 66-year-old man as well as two of her uncles.
“Because of these people, my childhood and innocence were stolen from me,” she said. “I still live in fear.”
The woman said she suffers from PTSD, mental health difficulties, depression, anxiety and flashbacks. She has self-harmed and had suicidal ideation.
“I am constantly looking over my shoulder and thinking they will come after me,” she said. As a result of the abuse, she said her family has been torn apart and she has difficulty visiting her parents and siblings because of her extended family.
“I now want to live a life free of fear and their actions,” she said.
The man's other victim – his nephew who was fostered by the family - said he remains in fear to this day, and it never goes away. This man was regularly sexually abused by his uncle.
“Words have not yet been invented to describe the pain [my uncle] put me through,” he said. “The betrayal killed me inside.”
He said he still lives in constant fear. “It never goes away,” he said. “I have fear in my heart and my head. I'm always nervous.”
He said he has also made numerous attempts to end his own life and has engaged in self-harm in an effort to make the pain go away. “Every moment is a struggle.”
The court heard the man has 185 previous convictions, including 99 for the sexual abuse of two of his daughters. The remainder are for road traffic offences, larceny, burglary and public order offences.
Defence counsel said the man received no education and was illiterate. He learned to spell his name in prison, the court heard.
They asked Ms Justice Ring to take into account the fact the offences he is currently in jail for occurred during a similar time to the offences in this case.
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.
