Father gets 18 months for abuse of daughter, 4, as wife slept

A three-year-jail term with half of it suspended was imposed yesterday on a man who sexually assaulted his own four-year-old daughter when she sought comfort after a nightmare.

Judge Gerard O’Brien imposed that sentence on Finbarr Lynch at Cork Circuit Criminal Court yesterday.

The child had sought the safe haven of her parents’ bed after a nightmare. However, her dad undressed her and sexually assaulted her as his wife slept beside him.