Rape centre praises judge for suspending jail term

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.

Organisation director Miriam Duffy praised Judge Carroll Moran for acceding to the victim’s wishes that her father not be jailed.

Ms Duffy was commenting on the case at Limerick Circuit Court, where Oliver Haskett, aged 61, with an address at Westbury, Limerick, was convicted of engaging in prolonged sexual abuse of his daughter, Sheila, who is now married with two children.

Haskett was given a four-year suspended sentence after the judge was informed she did not want her father to be sent to prison. She said she was shocked on seeing her father being taken into custody at the same court last week after he pleaded guilty.

Michael Collins, counsel for the DPP informed Judge Carroll Moran at a sentencing hearing on Thursday the victim had written to the prosecution saying she did not want her father jailed.

In her letter, she stated she was happy her father had accepted her accounts of the abuse were true.