A 30-year-old Dublin man who sexually abused his young niece while babysitting her has been jailed for four years at the Central Criminal Court.
The man, who cannot be named for legal reasons, pleaded guilty to two counts of sexual assault on the girl in her house at a date in early spring of 1996 when she was seven years of age.
The court heard the girl had been sleeping and woke up to find her uncle lying beside her and rubbing against her.
She told gardaí, when she made the complaint four years later, she had woken up when he began to touch her but she was so frightened that she did not move nor indicate she had woken up.
The now 13-year-old girl wrote a letter to Mr Justice Carney stating the incident had changed her whole life and that she hated "having to think about, knowing I will never forget about it."
Her father told Mr Justice Paul Carney: "My daughter is just 13. Half of her life has been taken up by this. Her innocence as a child has been taken away. My whole family has been torn apart."
He said his daughter cannot bear to be in the presence of an adult male anymore and leaves immediately if any such person is present in the same room.
Mr Justice Carney said the sentence he imposed might not satisfy the girl's father but he was constrained by the fact that the maximum sentence for sexual assault was five years as the incident occurred before September 2001 when the Sexual Offenders Act came into place.
He also took into consideration his lack of any previous convictions, and his 'apparent' remorse and suspended unconditionally the final year of the sentence.
Mr Justice Carney certified him as a sex offender and ordered post release supervision.