Farmer to pay €350k for raping niece

THE High Court has ordered a Co Offaly farmer to pay €350,000 in damages to his niece after finding that he “brutally raped” and sexually abused her “on numerous occasions” over a period of 13 years.

The woman, now in her mid-30s, claims the assaults occurred between 1990 and 2003 at various locations in Co Offaly, including her family home, a car, a milking parlour, her grandmother’s house and when babysitting in her uncle’s home.

Yesterday at the High Court, Mr Justice John Quirke said that on the balance of probabilities he was satisfied that the man “had physically and sexually assaulted his niece regularly and repeatedly from when she was 12 years old” and had raped her when she was 14 years of age.