A CAVAN man who raped and sexually assaulted his teenage niece has been given a nine-year sentence.
The woman, now 22, revealed in her victim impact statement that she cannot say how many times she had tried to take her own life due to the abuse, and that she suffers bouts of self harm.
Deirdre Murphy SC, prosecuting, read the woman’s statement in court, in which she also said her extended family had “increased efforts” to make her feel like the abuse was her fault.
Ms Murphy told Mr Justice Patrick McCarthy the woman had made sexual abuse allegations against her father, who has pleaded guilty and awaits sentence, and another male relative, who is now deceased.
The woman’s 59-year-old uncle had pleaded not guilty at the Central Criminal Court to 14 counts of sexual assault and one of rape on dates between May 25th, 2002, and April 30th, 2004.
He was convicted on all counts on day four of his trial last month.
Mr Justice McCarthy imposed sentences totalling nine years and registered the man as a sex offender.
He said the offences were a “grave breach of trust” and noted the vulnerability of the victim.
A garda told Ms Murphy the victim’s parents had put her under pressure to keep silent about the abuse, including a threat that the IRA would be “put on her” if she disclosed her allegations.
The garda said the mother eventually told health authorities about just the uncle’s abuse.
The health authorities alerted gardaí, who took a statement from the victim, in which she revealed her uncle had frequently touched her breasts and private parts at both of their homes, at any opportunity.
The victim said her uncle had raped her in her bedroom one day while she was off sick from school, and had told her the experience would be good for her.
The garda told Ms Murphy the uncle had had a joking, “no harm” attitude towards the abuse.
The woman’s victim impact report revealed she had gone from being a good student prior to the abuse to being absent from school due to overdosing and irregular sleeping patterns.
She said she continues to self harm because she is angry with herself, bottles up her emotions and feels she has caused a burden to her family.
She added she has taught herself not to cry any more.
The woman said she had turned to drink after leaving the family home, when she found herself alone, and had been diagnosed with depression and a personality disorder.
She said she refuses to let doctors treat her medical conditions because of the abuse and feels the only real relationships she has are with her pets.
During the trial, the complainant’s mother told the jury that although her daughter disclosed to her that three family members had sexually abused her, she only reported the accused to the authorities. She admitted there was “a possibility” that she made threats to her daughter to discourage her from reporting her father as one of the abusers.
She reported the accused some five to six weeks after the then teenager first disclosed the abuse, but never informed gardaí about her father and the third man.
The mother accepted in cross-examination from Mary Rose Gearty SC, defending, that she did make reference to her daughter about her own (the witness’s) life being over and the girl’s father taking his own life if the abuse came to light.
The woman further accepted that she had issued a threat to her daughter “involving the IRA”.
She agreed with a suggestion from Ms Gearty that she had “essentially put pressure on her to confine her allegations to the accused”.
Earlier, the woman had told Ms Murphy her daughter first disclosed the abuse to her in October 2004. She said she was shocked when she learned of it. “The shame of it. People knowing about it. I didn’t know what to do,” the woman told the jury.