12 years for raping partner’s daughter

A Dublin man has received a 12-year sentence, with the final two years suspended, 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 between November 23, 1988 and December 31, 1992. She was aged between 11 and 15 years old at the time.

Ms Cahill waived her right to anonymity so that Crowe, who also has an address of Tirellan Heights, Galway City, could be named.

Mr Justice Paul Carney declared Crowe a sex offender and said he was taking into account the gross breach of trust, the victim’s age, and the multiplicity of offences .

The judge also took into account that Crowe took advantage of his victim’s dysfunctional upbringing and violated her while she was being abused by other family members.

Speaking to journalists outside the court, Ms Cahill thanked the gardaí in her case and said she was “very happy and grateful for Judge Carney’s decision”.

“I want to thank the family who did support me and I just want to go home now to my own family,” she added.

Mr Justice Carney backdated Crowe’s sentence to March 2013 and suspended the final two years, taking into consideration his early guilty plea, his genuine remorse, and previous good character. He ordered Crowe undergo 18 months post-release supervision and stay away from Ms Cahill on his release from prison.

At the sentence hearing last month, Ms Cahill began reading her victim impact statement but became overwhelmed and a garda read the remainder of it into the record.

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

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

“He became a monster in my mind,” Ms Cahill said, before describing 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.

Kieran Kelly, defending, told the court there were often times there was more alcohol in Ms Cahill’s childhood home than food and it would sometimes be his client who organised something for the children to eat.

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