A CORK MAN who raped his two sisters over 30 years ago has been given a four-year sentence at the Central Criminal Court.
Mr Justice Paul Butler imposed concurrent sentences totalling four years and suspended the final three years.
The 50-year-old man was found guilty by a jury in March on four counts - one each of rape and of indecent assault of each sister in Co Cork on dates in 1971 and 1972.
He had denied 30 charges at the start of his trial, during which Mr Justice Butler withdrew four of them - one each of rape and of indecent assault of both women - from the jury and directed that not guilty verdicts be returned on them. The jury failed to reach verdicts on 22 remaining charges and was discharged.
Mr Justice Butler said he was taking into account the fact that the accused was 14 at the time of the offence and that he had accepted the jury's verdict and was not at risk of reoffending.
He directed that the man's name be added to the register of sex offenders.
In evidence, one of the women said her brother raped her "a 100 times a year and 800 times in total". She said he treated her like a "rag doll" and a "slab of meat" and that he robbed her of her childhood. "I felt sick. I knew at eight years of age that this was wrong but who could I tell?" she said after describing the first time he raped her.
Her elder sister agreed during cross-examination that she received letters from her brother's solicitors in relation to slander before she complained to gardaí that he had raped her while she was a teenager.