Abuse victim: 'I can't bear to call him my father'

A young man who was systematically sexually abused and raped by his father for three years has told the Central Criminal Court that the man gave him a life sentence and he thinks his father should receive the same.

The now 20-year-old victim said he feels he now has a stigma attached to him and said he never had a childhood. He described how he had lived in fear and lay awake in bed waiting for his father to come and abuse him.

The 52-year-old convicted man, who can not be named to protect the identity of his victim, was found guilty by a jury last month of 11 charges of anal rape; 12 charges of oral rape; and 24 charges of sexual assault of the boy on dates between April 11, 2001 and June 23, 2004.

The offences occurred while the child was aged between 12 and 15 years old.

The victim broke down in tears as he told the court: "I can't even bear to call him my father...I hate the man and I want to tell everyone here today I will never forgive him."

Mr Justice Barry White indicated he did not intend to impose a life sentence and adjourned sentencing until Friday.

Ms Aileen Donnelly SC, prosecuting, outlined how the father began abusing his son when the child was 12 years old and would come into the bedroom the boy shared with his two brothers, put his hands under the covers and touch him intimately through his clothing.

From September 2001 the boy was raped by his father anally and orally until the time he left home in June 2004.

The boy would be left baby-sitting and he slept with a knife under his pillow because he was afraid.

Ms Donnelly said the boy’s mother had given evidence that she witnessed rapes but did nothing to stop it at the time. She said that “any semblance of parental propriety” was absent in the household.

The court heard the convicted man has one previous conviction for a road traffic offence.

The complainant outlined in his victim impact statement how as a result of the abuse he never had a childhood and feels he now has a stigma attached to him as “that lad who was abused by his father”.

He said it was an “awful thing to live in fear” and described how the only happy memories he had of his father were going fishing and going to the pub. He described how family life centred around the pub.

He said he knew he was different to other children when he saw that they were happy to go home from school and heard about the things they did with their parents. He said he never looked forward to going home.

The complainant described how he felt afraid as he lay in bed waiting for his father to come and abuse him. He said he had lived in fear of his father all his life and had been threatened not to tell anyone about the abuse.

He said the pain of the abuse was "terrible" but his father never cared and just hit him when he tried to stop it.

He said the only true thing his father said during his defence evidence to the court was that a person would have to be a "pure deranged animal" to perform those acts.

The man said his father had never shown remorse and during his evidence had tried to blame everything on him.

He said he hated his father and would never forgive him. He said: “He has given me life sentence and I think he should be given a life sentence.”

Mr David Goldberg SC, defending, said it had been “an immensely difficult case” for all those involved and while “it might occur to some people there was some sort of psychiatric deficit” in the mind of the accused a psychiatric assessment had revealed he did not suffer from “any psychosis or illness of the mind”.

Mr Goldberg said the accused continued to deny the offences. He urged the court not to engage in “vengeance or revenge” and impose a determinate sentence rather then a life sentence. He asked Mr Justice White to show what leniency he could.

Ms Donnelly said the Director of Public Prosecutions considered the case to be at the upper end of the scale of seriousness as his father was in a position of trust and was a dominant figure in the household.