A STEWARD at Knock shrine who subjected his adopted daughter to a "reign of terror" of rape and physical abuse has been jailed for 17 years. In the Central Criminal Court yesterday Mr Justice Carney said the man had outwardly been "a paragon of virtue" in his community.
Apart from his work in Knock, he had also been a minister of the Eucharist, an organiser of camps for the Catholic Boy Scouts of Ireland and an organiser of swimming instruction for children. He had also been a long standing member of the Pioneer Total Abstinence Association, said Mr Justice Carney.
"Having seen the daughter on the television link, I believe the only way I could assuage her terror is to impose a sentence of life imprisonment," he said.
He noted evidence that the defendant had "stalked" his adopted daughter while on bail and after she was taken into care and she was still in great fear of him. Mr Justice Carney said he was precluded from imposing a life sentence in this case because Irish law did not recognise "preventive detention".
He had found decisions by the Supreme Court and the Court of Criminal Appeal prevented such a sentence. "Accordingly, I find myself limited or capped in the degree to which I may attempt to assuage the fears of the victim."
Giving evidence on video link, the victim, now 16, showed the court she had been left with a "cauliflower ear" and a scar on her elbow as a result of the "outrages" her father carried out on her. The nails of some of her toes were deformed. She cried continually while giving her evidence and said she had been deprived of a normal family life with her mother and siblings.
She described how her father slapped, hit, kicked and lamed her. On one occasion he bent her arms backwards, nearly breaking them. He also raped and sexually assaulted her. She believed her father enjoyed inflicting pain on her. The court further heard he originally told gardai she would initiate the sex and the only explanation the defendant could give for his actions was that he was frustrated at being unemployed.
In January, the 34 year old father of four, who cannot be named for legal reasons, pleaded guilty to raping his daughter on two unknown dates from January 1994 to July 1995. He also admitted a third charge of sexually assaulting her on a date unknown from January to July 1993.
Mr James Connolly SC (with Mr Tom O'Connell), prosecuting said the defendant married a woman in the 1980s when her daughter was seven. He adopted the girl about a year later. Since the abuse had come to light, he had been barred from the family home, his wife had separated from him and his daughter was in foster care.
In her statement, the girl told gardai the abuse took place for more than two years. She said she was uncomfortable around him and had been ashamed to go to school because of the bruises he had inflicted on her. She tried to hide the marks with her hair and make up, but her school friends and teachers began to notice her behaviour.
Mr Connolly said the girl recalled how her father would touch her and then have sex with her every few weeks for more than two years. She said she was afraid he would hit and kick her if she told anyone what was happening.
He often hit her across the face for no reason and hit and kicked her. He administered "severe beatings" about six times, once using a belt on her back, and beatings occurred every week. The girl said she stopped swimming when he marked her body with the belt.
She said that in June 1994 when he picked her up from school, a woman saw her father hit her across the head with his closed fist. He told the victim to say he had been fixing her hair band.
In August 1995 he pulled her by the nose and bent both her arms backwards until "they nearly broke". The next morning he went to Knock to act as a steward to look after invalids.
A local detective told Mr Connolly that, when interviewed the defendant admitted raping his daughter between 1993 and 1994.
When asked about the marks on her body he said they came about "through my aggression, by pinches and not by blows, due to being out of work". He said her thickened ear was due to blows from his hand.
He said that as time went on his daughter initiated sex but he added he was not trying to put the blame on her. In answer to gardai, he replied: "I now realise it is illegal to have sex with a girl under the age of 15."
The detective said the defendant's father was a businessman and it was accepted the defendant was good to his daughter in the early stages of his marriage.
The detective said he first became aware of matters in June 1993 when the girl's school principal reported that other pupils had seen the man give the victim a kiss "a father would not give a daughter". The following April a garda's child noticed the victim was not togging out for gym.
The teacher had also become aware of this and a social worker was appointed to the girl. The following June a woman witnessed the "hair band" incident outside the school.
A place of safety order was made in 1995 after a man reported that a month earlier he had seen the defendant lead the into a secluded area and touch her between her legs.
He first raped his daughter while supervising an outing of a girls group in 1993. The abuse continued for two years and one month during which he subjected her to a "reign of terror after his daughter was taken into care in another town, he constantly tried to phone her and to go to see her.
A barring order was taken against him and he was told stay out of his native county.
A psychologist said she examined the girl and found she had been living in "overwhelming fear" of her father. The girl felt if she confided in anyone he would kill her. She felt he was abusing her because she was not his natural child and that he "enjoyed inflicting pain on her".
The psychologist said the victim had lost the trust in adults as well, as a significant portion of her childhood and adolescence. She was unable to have a proper relationship with her mother - who did not know about the abuse - because the defendant was always around his wife. She believed she had to be dirty and had an over whelming sense of powerlessness and embarrassment, and was ashamed.