21-year sentence for rape of two stepsons

A Wicklow man who raped and sexually assaulted two of his stepsons hundreds of times over a 10-year period has been sentenced to 21 years in prison, with the final seven suspended.

The 51-year-old, the victims’ mother’s husband, also had his friend sexually abuse one of the boys and abused both of them in front of another male relative. He sometimes made the boys commit incest with each other while he watched.

Mr Justice Tony Hunt said: “There was harrowing evidence of industrial quantities which had a profound and long lasting effect on both boys.”