Man faces jail for raping partner’s daughter, 11

A Dublin man will be sentenced next month for the repeated rape of his partner’s then 11-year-old daughter in her Galway home.

Henry Crowe, aged 57, of Blackditch Rd, Ballyfermot, pleaded guilty at the Central Criminal Court to five sample charges of raping Majella Cahill on dates between November 23, 1988 and December 31, 1992. She was aged between 11 and 15 years old at the time.

Ms Cahill indicated in her victim impact report that she wished to waive her right to anonymity so that Crowe could be named.

Mr Justice Paul Carney remanded Crowe, who also has an address of Tirellan Heights, Galway city, in continuing custody until April 13, next for sentence.

Ms Cahill began reading her victim impact statement but became overwhelmed and a garda read the remainder of it into the record. She outlined how she was neglected as a child by her mother.

She said that, as a three-year-old, she went to live with her father’s parents before returning to live in Galway with her mother’s parents when she was seven years old.

When she was 11, Crowe started a relationship with her mother and began to rape her on a daily basis.

Describing her “horrible and disgusting childhood” Ms Cahill’s statement said: “We were left on our own, hungry and dirty. I was neglected by my mother.”

She said social services were involved with the family but her mother would “clean and feed us” when she knew they were visiting.

Ms Cahill said when she told her mother about Crowe raping her, she called the child “a prick teaser” and said that Ms Cahill had wanted Crowe for herself.

“She always claimed I was lying,” she said. “She started beating me when I told her about the abuse.”

Ms Cahill said she later became unruly and would get into trouble with the local gardaí. She said when Crowe raped her he would start by accusing her of being bold.

“He became a monster in my mind,” Ms Cahill said before she described once being raped while her mother was pregnant with Crowe’s child.

She said her mother blamed her when they broke up and he returned to live in Dublin.

Ms Cahill then described how she spent time living on the street and was suicidal. She said she later became a mother and had difficulty bathing her children and changing their nappies.

She said she suffers from depression, anxiety, and panic attacks but has attended for counselling at the Rape Crisis Centre.

Ms Cahill first made a complaint to gardaí in November 2011 outlining the abuse she suffered.

Crowe was arrested in May 2013 and interviewed twice. He did not deny any of Ms Cahill’s allegations. He has no previous convictions.

Kieran Kelly, defending, told

Justice Carney that Crowe has faced up to these crimes and acknowledged his wrongdoing.

He said he wants to apologise to Ms Cahill for these “appalling crimes”.