Man admits 'grooming' young daughter for nine-year rape ordeal

A man who admitted “grooming” his daughter before raping and sexually assaulting her over a nine-year period is to be sentenced later at the Central Criminal Court.

The 42-year-old man, who cannot be named for legal reasons, pleaded guilty to raping the then eight-year-old girl on dates between April 20, 2000 and April 14, 2007.

He also pleaded guilty to sexually assaulting the girl on a date unknown between May 14, 1998 and June 4, 1998.

Sergeant Ingrid Moore told Mr Will Fennelly BL, prosecuting, that while the girl’s mother was in hospital receiving treatment, the accused, “under the guise of comforting his daughter”, touched her genitals outside her clothes while he lay beside her on her bed.

The defendant admitted to gardaí that he brought his daughter from her bedroom to the living room where he showed her a pornographic video to “educate her to what happens between adults”.

He then told her to remove her clothes and raped her.

On another occasion he brought his daughter for a drive in the family car, purchased condoms and raped her in the backseat.

The man’s daughter fell pregnant after he raped her on a further occasion and she felt she “had no choice but to travel to the UK with her mother to have an abortion” as her father told her the baby “would come out like an alien all deformed and disfigured”.

When questioned by gardaí in relation to the offences, Sgt Moore said the accused admitted he had sex with his daughter.

“You may say I was grooming her,” he told gardaí.

Sgt Moore agreed with Mr Padraig O’Dwyer SC, defending, that the accused was co-operative and admitted his wrong-doing.

In her victim impact statement, which the girl read out in court, she said she “hated him” (her father) because he took away her innocence.

She said she always believed abortion was wrong but felt she “had to get rid of the baby” because her father told her it would look like an alien.

“No-one knew what he was doing to me. I had no confidence, no self-esteem and my school friends thought I was weird,” she said.

“I hope he rots in prison because that’s what he deserves,” she said.

She said the hardest part of it all was “reliving everything” when she gave statements to gardaí.

Mr Justice Paul Carney remanded the man, who is currently serving a sentence for previous sexual offences, in custody for sentencing next month.