Rape support services are facing an unprecedented funding crisis, with one of the country?s biggest centres forced to shut its doors because it cannot pay its staff.

A judge has been praised by Rape Crisis Mid-West for suspending a jail sentence handed down to a man who sexually abused his daughter over a number of years.

An 82-year-old paedophile and former garda was jailed yesterday as a judge said prison would give him time to reflect on his awful sexual abuse of four boys 50 years ago, two of whom suffered from polio.