A RETIRED Limerick prison officer has been sentenced to 15 years in prison for the repeated abuse and rape of his daughter over 10 years in what she described as their “house of doom”.
Harry Daly’s daughter waived her right to anonymity so her father could be named.
Daly (57), Lanna, Lisseycasey, Co Clare, came forward to the Central Criminal Court on signed pleas of guilty from the District Court. He signed 227 pleas, 103 of indecent assault and 24 of sexual assault. The remainder were charges of different forms of rape, including oral rape.
Daly pleaded guilty before Mr Justice Paul Carney to sample charges of rape, indecent assault and sex assault of the girl between February 1st, 1982, and November 30th, 1992, when she was between six and 17 years old.
Daly’s wife stayed with him after their daughter disclosed the abuse. Mr Justice Carney said he understood from the evidence there was a five-year period when the girl was abused daily.
He said the breach of trust, gravity of the offence, effect on the victim, multiplicity and duration of the crimes and “the grooming and escalating nature of the offences”, warranted a 15-year sentence.
He suspended the last five years of the sentence, having taken into account the fact Daly “availed of a procedure to bring the case before the court in the shortest possible time” by signing pleas of guilty.
He also took into account his lack of previous convictions, expression of remorse and the fact he had worked all his life.
Mr Justice Carney granted the suspension on condition Daly kept away from his daughter unless she wished to see him. He registered him as a sex offender and said he must undergo seven years of post-release supervision.
Daly had been a prison officer for 26 years in Limerick Prison, specialising in the jail’s catering service. He had previously served in the British navy and the Irish Army. He retired in 2008.
The abuse came to an end in 1992 when the woman moved out of the family home in Clare.
From the first day Daly had abused his then six-year-old daughter, the woman told gardaí, he had told her “not to tell anyone because he would go to prison”.
The court heard Daly told the girl’s mother to put her on the contraceptive pill when she was 14.
Daly sought psychiatric help in 1993 and moved out and his daughter returned for a short time. She left again when her mother welcomed her father back.