The parents of six children who were subjected to almost daily physical and emotional abuse over a number of years have been sentenced at Castlebar Circuit Court in Mayo.
The father was jailed for five-and-a-half years and the mother received a three-year sentence.
Judge Sinead McMullan said there was very real damage done to their children, and that the level of trauma was immeasurable. She said they had no safe place in their home and no parental figure to protect them.
The case has been a harrowing litany of child cruelty at the hands of the parents, a man in his 50s and a woman in her 40s.
Both admitted to multiple child cruelty offences between January 2018 and October 2021.
Judge Sinead McMullan described as "chilling" the plans concocted by the parents to explain to social workers why their children flinched whenever their father walked past, and pretending that some of the children were autistic.
Watch: RTÉ's Teresa Mannion reports outside court in Mayo
We need your consent to load this rte-player contentWe use rte-player to manage extra content that can set cookies on your device and collect data about your activity. Please review their details and accept them to load the content.Manage Preferences
She said that as well as inflicting their own physical and emotional harm, they allowed cruelty to occur without intervening and in front of the other siblings.
She described their behaviour as domineering, controlling and demeaning.
The abuse was not only physical but also involved the use of foul language, screaming at the children and intimidating them.
The children were aged between one and 17 when the abuse was first reported four years ago.
All six were taken into care after the two eldest walked into a garda station in the west of Ireland and handed over 180 secret audio recordings of their parents hitting or screaming at them.
Twenty-nine extracts were played in court.
One of them included a 999 call made after the eldest son was beaten unconscious by his father.
He told emergency responders that his son had collapsed after work. Later he said his son got a f****** life lesson.
In a victim impact statement, he said his parents made his life feel like a prison. They controlled and neglected and hurt him and robbed him of a happy childhood.
Now 21, he still struggles with anxiety and is living under a new name.
In another recording, the father is heard belittling and insulting his eldest daughter who was 15 at the time.
He said nobody cared about her feelings and added: "The only reason we have to effin put up with you is because you effin live in the house.
"Is it any effin wonder you've no effin friends" before going on to call her a moody little b****."
The mother called her children "vindictive liars" after they reported the abuse to gardaí
Giving evidence, a foster mother for the second-youngest child said the three-year-old suffered from night terrors and lashed out at school - kicking, screaming and headbutting.
He would call himself the worst boy in the world.
She said that once he stopped seeing his parents, there was a huge improvement and he is now a lot happier.
Judge McMullan noted what she called "a remarkably generous" victim impact statement from the second eldest daughter.
Now aged 19, she took to the stand earlier this week saying her parents had acted with "poor judgement" but that she did not view them as a threat to her or her siblings.
And she said that she herself carries deep guilt for the distress caused each member of her family in reporting the abuse.
The judge said mitigating factors included the parents changing the plea to guilty at the start of the trial in May, and said they were engaging in therapy, showing substantial remorse, and trying to make amends.
She noted that some of the victims remain conflicted about reporting the crimes and, as they see it, breaking up the family. She said it was much to their credit that they have a forgiving attitude.
She said some of these children are now young adults and described them as "extraordinarily eloquent, intelligent and brave".
She said their actions had brought to an end to the abuse of their younger siblings and the fallout was the consequence of their parents' actions and theirs alone.
She said the burden of sentencing falls on her and her alone and not on anybody else.
She imposed a sentence of six years and three months on the father, with nine months suspended, and three years and nine months on the mother, with nine months suspended.
She wished all the children the best in their future lives and said she hopes their strength and resilience helps them.
