Mother gets 14 years for sex abuse of daughter

A mother who used her young daughter for sexual exploitation has been given a 14-year sentence.

Yesterday, the 47-year-old west of Ireland woman, who cannot be named, received concurrent seven- and five- year sentences respectively for sexually assaulting and mistreating the girl.

The offences took place at the family home between 2004 and 2008, when the girl was aged between five and nine. Evidence at a previous sitting of Roscommon Circuit Court revealed that the mother did not intervene while the girl was led around in a dog lead by a neighbour before being raped.

The child was subjected to shocking sexual abuse by her mother, as well as by the neighbour. The court sitting in Longford yesterday heard that her father had pleaded guilty to charges of sexually assaulting his daughter and is due before a sentencing court later this year.

The neighbour was given an eight-year sentence last year after pleading guilty to the oral and vaginal rape of the child. That sentence is currently under appeal by the DPP.

The mother admitted 12 charges, including sexual assault, willful neglect or ill- treatment, and using her daughter for the purpose of sexual exploitation.

The male neighbour used to baby-sit the girl and her siblings twice or three times a week at her original family home and began abusing her. The child made it clear that when the neighbour was in the act of abuse, her mother was in the home. The woman had been having an on-off affair with her neighbour.

She also revealed that her mother had “tickled” her in her private parts.

The offences came to light after the girl was taken into care with her two siblings in 2008. She initially said her mother had been slapping her and later spoke of her knocking her over.

In statements from social workers and the victim, it emerged the mother taught her daughter to masturbate when she was five, while she often went without food and was unable to use utensils or brush her hair when taken into care aged nine.

Her first foster family became concerned at what they called her sexualised behaviour. She used to kiss her sister on the mouth and later it emerged that she was openly masturbating. The foster family was unable to cope and the child was moved to another foster home.

Here, she struggled to eat and did not know what it was to feel full. She spoke of several evenings when there was no food in her original family home. The child was later found to have bruises and was self-harming by biting herself.

In court yesterday, Judge Hunt Tony referred to the “horrifying facts” of the case. What the mother had dished out to the child was almost beyond belief, he said.

“I have never personally come across anything equal to the neglect in this case,” the judge said. He added that he found it almost impossible to determine how a child could deal with the enormity of such abuse.

Referring to the mother, Judge Hunt added: “She was callously indifferent to the fate of her child and acted positively in a hostile way that was inimical to her children.”

Imposing a 14-year term for the charges of sexual exploitation, the judge said he would suspend the final four-and-a-half years on condition that she kept the peace and did not have any contact with her children without consent.