Abuse ‘a shadow that took innocence’

The mother of a child who was raped by her uncle over a seven-year period has described how the abuse has caused a crack in her family “that no time will ever heal”.

In a victim impact statement read in the Central Criminal Court, she said she would never get over the fact her brother repeatedly raped her daughter from when she was aged seven to 14.

“To my brother,” the woman’s statement read, “my world shattered the day I learned the secret my baby girl had been carrying for so many years. I couldn’t believe my brother could hurt his own sister’s daughter, his niece...