Sex assaults on nieces after biscuit promise

A 77-year-old paedophile lured his then six-year-old niece with the promise of biscuits to his home where he sexually assaulted her.

At Ennis Circuit Court, the Clare man pleaded guilty to the sexual assault of two of his nieces in the 1990s.

He also pleaded guilty to a fourth sex assault count against the younger niece in 2009 when she was aged 23.

The man first sexually assaulted her when she was six or seven in 1992 and 1993 and sexually assaulted her sister in 1996/97 when she was aged 14 to 15 years old.

In Garda interviews, counsel for the State Stephen Coughlan said, the accused tried to put the blame on his two young nieces for the sexual abuse that occurred.

Mr Coughlan said: “It was the uncle’s view that it wasn’t his fault. That the children were the ones who were responsible for all of this — that they egged him on.” He added: “At one stage, the uncle told Gardai ‘they were the boldest nieces anyone could have’ and by that, I think he meant that they were someway promiscuous and that they put him in a very difficult position.”

Mr Coughlan said that in relation to the younger girl, the man said: “I did nothing to the girl, did she think that I raped her?” In relation to the sex assault on the niece aged 14 to 15 at the time, the man told gardaí he knew he was doing wrong “but she offered it herself. I thought she wanted to have business with me.”

In a victim impact statement, the victim of three counts of sexual assault said her uncles’s sex assaults have left her distressed, disgusted, hurt and angry.

The man has no previous convictions and his counsel, Mark Nicholas BL said that his client had a blameless life apart from the sex assaults.

Mr Nicholas said the man’s wife is sticking with him, but is upset and unhappy with what happened.

The case was adjourned to later this month for sentencing.