A 45-year-old man has been jailed for 17 years for the rape and sexual assault of his wife and two daughters.
The Central Criminal Court, sitting in Cork, heard the abuse started before the man married and continued after his daughters were born, until the elder of the two girls was aged 16.
The man cannot be identified to protect the anonymity of his victims.
The litany of abuse perpetrated by this man, first on his wife and later on his two daughters, was summarised by the sentencing judge, Ms Justice Mary Ellen Ring.
She said the man began abusing his wife even before they were married, and the abuse continued subsequently for several years, even after she became seriously ill.
The woman had told the court the abuse affected her recovery.
At one stage, the woman was abused after she had been released from hospital, and she had to be re-admitted for further treatment.
She tried physically resisting the abuse, but she said that only made things worse.
The man was coersive and controlling.
She said she often sought safety in her daughters' bedroom. She now blames herself for not seeing that her daughters were being abused too. She still cannot understand her husband's behaviour.
The man began abusing his two daughters when they were aged around nine. In both cases, the nature of the abuse became progressively worse and, in the case of the older daughter, involved rape with an object.
At an earlier court hearing, the older daughter recalled a happy early childhood, living in a house where everybody could go. But this changed after she received her First Communion, and she no longer felt comfortable in his company.
She said the abuse occurred hundreds of times, in her own bedroom and in her parents' bedroom. She remembered the worst abuse happening when she was studying for her Junior Certificate exams.
She felt she had lost control of her body. She described showering until she was almost bleeding.
The youngest daughter recalled being raped regularly until she was around 11 years of age. She said the abuse hurt her body, her peace and her life and she does not feel like a normal teenager.
She is going through therapy, talking about things a child should not have to talk about, she said.
She feels angry about what her father did to her. He took her confidence and her self-worth.
The abuse continued until the older daughter left the family home and confided in a friend.
The man was first arrested in November 2020, by Detective Sergeant Elaine Scannell of the Cork County Garda Protective Services Unit and questioned about the allegations in relation to his wife and older daughter.
He was subsequently arrested in September 2023, by Detective Garda Brian Morris and questioned about the abuse of his younger daughter.
He denied all the allegations.
He pleaded guilty in February of this year to the abuse of his wife and older daughter, immediately before he was due to go on trial.
His plea of guilty in relation to the abuse of his younger daughter came last month, just before he was due to go on trial on those charges.
His plea in relation to all three was to a sample of the 185 counts of rape and sexual assault on the indictment and was offered on a full facts basis, meaning the man accepted the totality of the case against him by the State.
Before sentencing the man this afternoon, Ms Justice Ring said the determination of the woman and her two daughters to move on and create happy lives had to be applauded and none of them bore any blame for what had happened.
She recalled in their victim impact statements how the man's wife and older daughter had both described themselves as survivors, and how the younger daughter described now being able to do normal things.
She reminded the two daughters that they had room for many good and happy years. She said what all three had endured was unspeakable behaviour.
She said the man had abused a dominant position, a position of trust, over many years.
Ms Justice Ring described the use of an object in the crimes as adding further humiliation. The effects, she said, had been devastating.
"He had no regard for the fact that one of these females had, through marriage, devoted her life to him. He had no regard for the fac that two of the victims were his own flesh and blood," Ms Justice Ring said.
She sentenced the man to a total of 17 years in jail this afternoon, saying there was no indication he appreciated the harm his abuse had caused.
She said blame rested fully on his shoulders.
The man sat throughout the 40-minute hearing with his head bowed and did not react when the sentence was handed down.
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