A FORMER soldier in the Irish and British armies found guilty of the aggravated sexual assault of his daughter during 1980-91 was jailed for seven years yesterday.
Mr Justice Shanley said the former soldier, who is aged 64 and from south Dublin, used "considerable physical and emotional violence" on his daughter in "a 10 year span of consistent abnormal sexual activity".
The assaults began when she was 13.
His "significant and serious assaults were accompanied by "a most disturbing form of moral blackmail" in which he threatened that a young brother to whom she was devoted would be taken away if she told anyone what he did to her.
"This young woman was left distraught and has been considerably harmed by having to harbour for 13 years the memory of what her father did and threatened" said Mr Justice Shanley at the "Central Criminal Court.
The judge said that in sentencing the man he had to take into account the impact on his daughter of being unable to disclose to others in that time what had happened to her. Drink was not an excuse.
He noted that her father still denied the assaults and maintained his claim, rejected by the jury, that his daughter and another, young woman assaulted by him had their own "secret agenda" to pin these matters on him.
"His culpability is total, and by continuing to maintain his innocence he is not a suitable person for any form of treatment", said Mr Justice Shanley.
The man, who spent a total of 12 years in both the Irish and British armies, cannot be named to protect his victims' identities.
He was convicted in September by a jury on eight charges of aggravated sexual assault on his daughter but it found him not guilty of her rape. He was also found not guilty of four charges of incest and one of indecent assault.
The man was also found guilty of aggravated sexual assault and sexual assault of another female, family friend on April 1st, 1993.