A father who sexually abused two of his daughters, and raped one of them, has been jailed for six years.
Patrick Byrnes, 78, of Castletroy, Limerick, was convicted by a jury at the Central Criminal Court last July of 58 charges of indecent assault and two counts of rape on dates between 1975 and 1985.
The court heard that he told his daughters that he and their mother would split up if they told anyone about the abuse.
Byrnes began abusing his daughters when they were aged around seven, the year of their First Communion.
The trial heard he told them that "this is how daddies show their love".
The father-of-nine denied all the charges.
Today, Mr Justice Paul McDermott noted that the case has split the family.
Counsel for the DPP told the court that both victims wished to waive right to anonymity so their father could be identified.
Judge McDermott said the daughters were repeatedly abused by their father and lived a life of abject fear. Byrnes abused them with impunity.
He noted that both women said they were left broken by the childhood abuse.
Warning: Readers may find the following details distressing
At a sentence hearing earlier this week, gardaí told the court Byrnes had worked as a truck driver for a beverage company and a delivery man for a fruit wholesalers prior to becoming a taxi driver, and had never previously come to garda attention.
His wife died in 2013, and shortly after this, the complainants reported the matter to gardaí.
The court heard that the women were both aged seven when the sexual abuse began and it continued on a twice-weekly basis for a period of ten years.
The majority of the sexual abuse took place in the family home when the complainants were having baths and in a coal shed adjacent to the property.
Byrnes also sexually assaulted the girls in his car during shopping trips.
The court heard Byrnes also raped the younger of the two women twice in the sitting room of his home, while other family members slept.
In a victim impact statement one of the women, who is now aged 49, said she lived in fear, morning and night.
"I hated my childhood, he robbed me of it. But I protected my mum by not allowing this vile secret to be out in the open," she said.
The other woman, who is now aged 50, said she was terrified of Byrnes and described him as the controller of the family.
"He beat me to a pulp because he said I looked like my mother," she stated.
"Consensual sex felt wrong to me after what my father did to me and resulted in my broken marriage," she said.
The woman said the sexual abuse lead to depression and three attempts to take her own life.
"I will never ever forgive you, you showed no remorse, but now I'm back in control," she said.
Mark Nicholas SC, defending, told the court that Byrnes suffers from a heart condition that would make custody difficult.
He told Mr Justice Paul McDermott that his client maintains his innocence.
"This was an unusual case in that some of the family members gave evidence on behalf of the defence," he said.
Three of the indecent assault charges involved Byrnes "willing" the family dog to engage in sexual acts with one of the children.
