Mentally ill man jailed for sex assault on young niece

A mentally ill Cork man who sexually assaulted his eight-year-old niece and told a doctor he needed sexual experience to make him better has been jailed for three years.

The Central Criminal Court heard evidence at the sentence hearing that the man (aged 39) was "extremely" and "almost continuously" psychotic at the time and was frequently admitted to hospital.

He pleaded guilty to one count of oral rape and two counts of sexual assault on the girl at his family home in Cork between November 1992 and November 1993. He had been declared a sex offender on a previous date.

Mr Justice Paul Carney said a dysfunctional background offered “little if any mitigation in a case of this kind”.

Imposing the sentence, he balanced the man’s early guilty plea, previous good character and demonstration of remorse against the breach of trust with the victim, her young age and the affect it has had on her.

He ordered that the man undergo three years of post-release supervision.

The court heard the now 26-year-old victim did not tell anyone of the abuse at the time because she did not want to upset her parents or get anyone in trouble. She eventually went to gardaí last year because she was worried her uncle would abuse somebody else.

Dr Brian McCaffery told the court that the man suffered from paranoid schizophrenia and at one point believed he was the singer Ian Curtis who killed himself in 1980.

Dr McCaffery said the man displayed “bizarre” behaviour, including suicide attempts in imitation of Curtis. The doctor said these attempts were highly unusual as the man showed no signs of depression.

He was in and out of hospital prior to the assaults and at one point told a doctor that sexual experience would help him with his illness. He is currently on a high dose of medication which controls his condition, the doctor said.

A sergeant from a local garda station told prosecuting counsel, Ms Anne Rowland BL, that the victim made a complaint last year and when the man was arrested he made immediate admissions. He told gardaí in interview, he “interfered with” the girl and was “mollycoddling” her. He said he deeply regretted it.

He said it was “experimentation” and he “stopped that nonsense because it wasn’t the right thing to be doing”.

In a Victim Impact Report read to the court, the victim said the abuse had affected her life and personality to a significant degree. She said she believes she will never be able to have a normal relationship with her partner and that she feels “numb and guilty”.

The sergeant told the court that the first instance of abuse happened when the man found the girl in his bedroom.

Another time he walked into a room while she was jumping on the bed and told her to perform oral sex on him. When she said no he told her he would not let her out until she did. She did what he said before running out of the room.

Defence counsel, Mr Padraig Dwyer SC, submitted that his client has very strong family support and has not come to garda attention before or since. He said the reports handed into court show he is no danger to society if he maintains his regime of treatment.