Ten years for sexual abuse of stepchild

A Wicklow man has been jailed for 10 years for the regular and systematic abuse of his stepdaughter over a four-year period.

The victim, now aged 23, who last week described William Coster as “a horrible monster” who took her childhood, said she is happy for the media to name him.

Coster, aged 44, of Boghall Cottages, Boghall Rd, Bray, pleaded guilty at the Central Criminal Court to a number of sample counts of sexually assaulting her but had pleaded not guilty to additional charges of sex assault offences, as well as 13 charges of rape and 22 charges of anal rape. The victim was aged between 12 and 16 years old.

He has been in custody since he admitted those offences early last year.

Last December, the jury acquitted him on all the anal rape and rape charges, but convicted him on every sexual assault count.

Sean Gillane SC, prosecuting, said there were a total of 49 charges of sexual assault before the court, dating from 2002 to 2006.

Coster confessed to his wife when confronted in 2008 that he had kissed and touched the girl.

He immediately left the family home but sent more than 2,000 text messages to both his victim and her mother, again admitting his guilt and saying he deserved what was coming to him.

Mr Gillane said the victim was brought up to believe the man was her biological father. He first molested her on a holiday in 2002 and continued his abuse when they returned home.

Mr Justice Paul Carney declared Coster a sex offender and said he was taking into account the gravity of the offence, the breach of trust, the age of the victim, the disparity in age between her and Coster, the multiplicity of offences, and the effect on her.

He also took into account Coster’s admissions and remorse, and the fact that he left the family home.

Mr Justice Carney gave Coster 10 years for the charges he was convicted on by the jury and a concurrent eight-year term for those he pleaded to, and 18 months post-release supervision.

The abuse came to an end when the girl turned 16 and was “big enough to fight him off”, said Mr Gillane.

The victim disclosed the abuse to her mother in 2008 and the woman immediately confronted her husband.

The woman said in her victim impact statement that she took an overdose due to the abuse. “I wanted it all to end. This man was a monster,” she said. “He made my life hell. I had no childhood, he took that away.”