Man gets 5 years for sex attacks on nieces

A 58-year-old Dublin man has been sentenced to five years in jail for sexually assaulting two of his nieces in 2007.

Father of four Denis Farrington, of Quickpenny Rd, Ballough, Lusk, pleaded guilty to sexually assaulting his older niece, now aged 39, at her Dublin home on Sept 16, 2007.

He pleaded not guilty to sexually assaulting his younger niece, now aged 29, at her family home on the night Jun 15/16, 2007, by penetrating her vagina with his finger. However, he accepted a jury’s verdict of guilty following a trial earlier this year.

The sentence was passed by Judge Patrick McCartan on Mar 8 last, but could not be reported on that date as another trial was pending against the accused.

That case against Farrington, relating to a third woman, was dropped yesterday when Fiona Murphy BL, prosecuting, asked Judge Mary Ellen Ring to enter a nolle prosequi.

Passing sentence last month, Judge McCartan said Farrington’s two nieces had been “badly abused, their trust broken, and left with huge issues to cope with”, and that the assaults had had “catastrophic consequences” leaving families torn asunder.

“Both women required hospitalisation, counselling and treatment, where no fault, no blame, no wrong whatsoever rests upon their shoulders,” said Judge McCartan. “There is one source of all that happened today — the accused. This is important for the court to hear.”

Judge McCartan. imposed a five-year sentence on Farrington for sexually assaulting his younger niece and a three-year sentence for sexually assaulting her older sister, to run concurrently, dating from Feb 22, 2013.

The younger sister said she hoped that, by coming to court, she had stopped “a vicious cycle of abuse”. Her elder sister said what she and her family had done would “save the course of lives”.

“We have protected people from this horrific epidemic of abuse,” said the younger sister. “I hope this nightmare was not in vain. What I set out to achieve was to stop inappropriate behaviour in our family.”

She had been a confident person in the early stages of her career and in a relationship with someone she thought she would end up marrying. However, she said, her life changed after her uncle abused her physically, abused her trust, and made a liar of her.

Garda Olive Jolley said the older niece was sexually assaulted in her own home after a surprise birthday party for her father.

Remy Farrell SC, defending, said both offences took place where alcohol had been consumed and that the accused had no previous convictions.