A MAN who orally raped his three-year-old daughter has been given a 15-year prison sentence by Mr Justice Barry White at the Central Criminal Court. Mr Justice White said he had considered imposing a life sentence for the offences "the nature of which I find utterly abhorrent".
"There is nothing more appalling than oral rape of a three-year-old child and the gravity is increased when it is your own child," he told the 30-year-old man, who pleaded guilty to two charges of rape in 2005.
Mr Justice White said his offences were not only an appalling breach of trust in relation to his daughter but also of the child's mother. The offences had serious behavioural consequences for the victim, among them bed-wetting, tantrums and lack of appetite.
"Frankly, I am amazed that the Director of Public Prosecutions didn't take a more serious view of these offences than indicated to the court," Mr Justice White said.
"The member of the DPP's staff dealing with the case seems to have little or no understanding of the immensity of such offending in relation to a three-year-child by a close relative."
Mr Justice White said it was fortunate from the man's point of view that counsel had brought it to his attention that the life sentence he considered would not be appropriate in the light of decisions in other cases by the Court of Criminal Appeal. In these cases sentences of 12 and nine years had been laid down.
He also had to have regard to the man's previous good character and that this would have been a difficult case for the State to prove in a trial.
Mr Justice White said he would have had much more regard for his stated "remorse" if he had entered an earlier guilty plea. He said it had been urged on the court that his admission was made so that the victim could get counselling for her difficulties caused by his crimes, "but I would have been more convinced of this by an earlier plea".
Mr Justice White said that despite his comments, he would give the man the benefit of the doubt and allowed him credit for it in the sentence imposed.
He directed that his name be entered on the register of sex offenders and suspended the final three years of the sentence as well as imposing five years post-release supervision.
The offences came to light during a conversation between the child and her mother while she was brushing her teeth.