Saturday, July 4, 2009
A west Dublin woman whose father said "she was bad from the day she was born" has been jailed for falsely claiming he raped and sexually abused her.
The 35-year-old woman was convicted by a Dublin Circuit Criminal Court jury in October of making the false statements at the Rathmines Womens’ Refuge on July 20 and 24, 2002.
Judge Hunt imposed a four year term on the woman who cannot be named for legal reasons and said he could not think of a more serious allegation than that of a father being accused of raping his daughter.
"I can only imagine the distress this father suffered," he said. Judge Hunt also commented on "the wider social implications" of people making false rape accusations which he said "are damaging in that they have the serious knock-on effect of bringing about a rise in the disbelief for genuine rape victims".
"Finally, one has to mention the waste of time and resources of the gardaí and the Sexual Assault unit in the Rotunda Hospital," Judge Hunt added and suspended the final two years of her sentence on the condition that she remain working with the Probation Services for a period of three years.
The guilty verdicts were by 10-2 majority and came at the end of an eight-day trial. The jury found her not guilty on 11 further charges alleging she made false statements under section 12 of the Criminal Law Act to gardai on dates from May 15, 2002 to July 31, 2002.
She had denied she made 13 false statements claiming her father raped and sexually abused her from the age of six and that he was the father of one of her children.
DNA evidence given in the trial proved he was not the child’s father. She had withdrawn her allegations in a 14th statement.
Garda Dervilla Corcoran told prosecuting counsel, Mr Dominic McGinn BL, on day-one of the trial, that the woman had made similar allegations to another garda in 2001, but also withdrew them soon afterwards.
Gda Corcoran said that when she asked the woman why she had made the allegations in her statements, she replied that she "thought it might have been a cry for help".
She said the woman claimed the abuse had started in her family home in a west Dublin suburb and continued in her own home when she moved to another west Dublin suburb in 2001.
Her statements, which were read out in court, contained very graphic descriptions of her father’s alleged sexual abuse of her, including details of alleged oral and anal rape.
She claimed she had become pregnant by her father three times, starting when she was 15, and had gone to England each time for an abortion.
Gda Corcoran said an investigation into her allegations was launched and a file on her father was sent to the Director of Public Prosecutions.
He was arrested and denied the allegations, but when the DPP told gardaí they would be unable to prosecute the case, the woman made a 14th statement withdrawing all her allegations and stating they were untrue.
Gda Corcoran agreed with defence counsel, Mr Gerry O’Brien SC, that the woman’s statements were "generally consistent" as regards her allegations.
The woman’s father agreed in evidence that he told investigating gardaí that "from the day she was born she was bad" and made the claims because he was seeking custody of her children.
He told Mr McGinn she had been a "troublesome child" who was committed aged 15 to an institution "for treatment for her drinking problems" and had run away from home on several occasions.
He denied all her allegations and said her children were eventually taken into care by social services before he and his wife began seeking custody of them.
He told Mr McGinn he had difficulties reading and that part of the allegations regarding his sending text messages to his daughter could not be true. The man also denied an allegation put to him by Mr O’Brien that he had abducted one of her children for a period.
He agreed with Mr O’Brien that he told gardaí his daughter made the allegations against him because he was in a custody battle with her for her children but said he did not know she had made some allegations against him a year before the custody battle began.
He said it was not possible that he drove her to a garda station to withdraw her statements against him because, he said, he did not drive and had neither a licence nor a car.
He agreed she had sought a barring against him but said she had not turned up in court and it had not been served.
He also agreed with Mr O’Brien that there had been a protection order in place ordering him to keep away from his daughter.
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