A judge has praised the courage and resilience of the survivors of rape and sexual abuse in an extended family, as she sentenced three brothers to jail terms of between 16 and half and 11 years on multiple accounts of rape and sexual assault.
Judge Mary Ellen Ring noted that none of the perpetrators had acknowleged any wrongdoing in relation to the offence of rape, which she said was a serious attack on the bodily and psychological integrity of a victim.
None of the accused can be indentified and the judge said none of the perpetrators had accepted the verdicts of the jury.
She said this case raised serious questions about how the children were allowed to remain in the care of or in some cases, be rehomed with the family, where they were seriously abused and raped.
Home for the family was often the side of the road and poverty had pervaded every aspect of their lives.
The oldest brother, 41, was sentenced for the rape and anal rape of two victims, his sister and his niece, for which the court heard he had shown no empathy.
One victim had been aged between seven and eight-years-old when the offence occured. He was jailed for 15 years for offences including vaginal and anal rape.
Another brother, 38, was sentenced for offences involving three victims including his sister, the same niece and his de-facto brother. He was jailed for 16 and a half years.
The third brother, 40, was sentenced to 11 years for the vaginal rape of his sister and to four years for sexual assault, which the judge said had been a form of grooming.
The oldest man and the father of the three, who was not before the courts, after he was admitted to hospital on 1 November last, will be sentenced at a later date.
The sentencing went ahead after the court heard that victims and family members were in court.
The grandmother of one of the victims was also jailed for assault causing harm and for helping one of her sons to conceal the rape of her grandaughter. She was sentenced to four years in prison with the final two years suspended on condition that she enter into a €100 bond to keep the peace.
The judge said that when one of her grandchildren had sought her help, she had hit her with a chimney cleaning stick and taken steps to cover up what was happening, interfering with the child's ability to tell anyone else what had happened.
It was noted that she herself had been the victim of serious sexual and physical abuse at the hands of her husband whom she had married at 16. She has no previous convictions and there had been no further complaints against her in the 20 years since the rapes and abuse had taken place.
Judge Ring noted that in relation to each of the three brothers before the courts today that they were the children of their father and that the example he had set them could not be ignored.
She said she would deal with their father, who is 66 and already serving a 16-year setence for the rape and abuse of two of his daughters, when he was in a position to attend the court.
Judge Ring said poverty had pervaded every aspect of the victims' lives and that the man not before the courts today had fathered a child with his own daughter and raped and sexually abused his other daughter.
She said they had been relentlessly preyed upon with violence and deviance.
One of the victims said in a victim impact statement before the courts that due to the actions of the accused, her childhood had been stolen from her and she suffered from poor mental health and self-harmed. Her family had ruptured as a result of the abuse.
She said she now wanted to live a life with her own family and one free of fear.
One boy who had been fostered into the family before being raped by his uncle said he felt betrayed and still lived in fear. He said he had felt powerless to avoid the rape and now felt guilty about not having fought hard enough. The judge said he never should have been put in a position where he needed to fight.
Another victim said the abuse on her by her brothers meant she felt her life could never be normal. She still bore the scars and had never felt love or affection. She had flashbacks and anxiety over the attacks and could not trust other people.
Another boy who was aged between 10 and 13 when the abuse and rape took place said he did not call the perpetrators of this abuse family. They were monsters. He said he had never learned to read or write and had also been left short of food.
Judge Ring said many children lived in poverty but were cared for and loved by the adults in their lives.
She said the victims in this case had had their right to safety, food, education and protection breached over and over again. She said they were here in court because they had faced their fears. She commended them and wished them well in the future.
