Three years for man who assaulted his partner's pregnant daughter

A man who used his mobile phone to film himself sexually assaulting his partner's pregnant daughter and her friend has been jailed for three years by Judge Katherine Delahunt at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court.

The 40-year-old man, who can not be named for legal reasons, filmed video clips of himself stripping and assaulting the sleeping women after he came home from a night's "binge" drinking.

He pleaded guilty to two counts of sexually assaulting both the 15 weeks pregnant then 18-year-old victim and her then 16-year-old friend, at his home on June 17, 2006.

Defence counsel, Mr Paul Carroll BL, said the victim's mother was continuing to stand by the man despite the assault and had handed in a letter to the court on his behalf.

Judge Delahunt imposed concurrent sentences of three years and 18 months for the assaults and ordered post-release supervision for five years. She also ordered his name be added to the sex offenders register.

"I consider the photography and videoing of these assaults to be a considerable aggravating factor," she said.

Garda Maeve O'Sullivan told prosecuting counsel, Ms Melanie Greally BL, that the two women were asleep in the living area of the apartment when the younger woman was woken by the sound of a mobile phone clicking and found her t-shirt rolled up.

The older woman had a short conversation with the man before she fell asleep but was woken by tugging at her leg. She fell back asleep again but was woken again when she felt a hand on her thigh and found her trousers and underwear had been pulled down.

Gda O'Sullivan said the woman pretended to be asleep while he assaulted her and she heard "clicking sounds" from buttons on a mobile phone.

When her assailant stood up to leave the room momentarily she saw it was her mother's partner.

Gda O'Sullivan said he returned again, she heard the phone noises again and realised he was recording the assault.

When he left the room again she woke her friend and they reported the assault to the gardaí.

Gda O'Sullivan said the man initially claimed not to remember anything but when confronted with the photo and video footage from his phone he admitted the assaults.

Gda O'Sullivan said there were three video clips and a photograph of the more serious assault on his partner's daughter, showing him unclothing her and penetrating her with his fingers and tongue.

She said there was also a five minute video clip showing him fondling the younger girl.

Gda O'Sullivan said there was no evidence that the images had been passed on to anyone else.

She said he was still in a relationship with the victim's mother and they had a child. He had four previous convictions for road traffic and public order offences.

Gda O'Sullivan agreed with Mr Carroll that the man told gardaí he felt "sick, gutted and disgusted" after looking at the images. He said he had drunk around 16 or 17 pints that night with work colleagues and consumed more at home.

Mr Carroll said while his client "knew right from wrong" he had been assessed on the Wrestler Adult Intelligence Scale to be in a range which had been classified in the past as "mildly mentally handicapped".

He said the man had "fallen through the cracks in the system" as a child and had little education apart from a few years in primary school and was unable to recite the alphabet correctly. He felt remorse for the offence and had pleaded guilty at an early stage.