Sligo man handed 10-year sentence for raping daughter

A Sligo man, who called his 15-year-old daughter a whore after he raped her, has been jailed for ten years by Ms Justice Elizabeth Dunne at the Central Criminal Court.

The man, who cannot be named to protect the identity of his victim, had been convicted by a jury last November on one count of rape and one count of sexually assaulting the teenager on dates between April 1 and June 30, 2006.

The jury failed to agree on three further charges of sexual assault and a nolle prosequi was entered in relation to these offences today.

The woman, now 20 years old, told the court in her victim impact statement that she never had a childhood and was not allowed to have friends.

She said her father was “all she had” and she should have been able to trust him. “He was meant to protect me and look after me,” she said.

The woman told the court that she at first thought that what her father did to her was normal and happens to everyone but when she realised the truth, she said “I felt disgusted”. She used to wish that the parents of the other children in her class could be her parents.

She said she didn’t want to be “dragged down” by her father anymore and she wanted to move on with her life.

“I want my father to know what he put me through. Before this court case I felt suffocated and now I can breathe again,” the woman said.

Ms Justice Dunne said “rape was one of the most serious offences in this jurisdiction and in pretty much every jurisdiction around the world”.

She said in this case as it was a rape of a daughter by a father, who was her sole carer at the time; the “appalling offence” was “an extremely serious breach of trust”.

“She had no one else to turn and she should have been able to trust her father, yet he was the one who perpetrated this offence on her and it was accompanied by the use of demeaning language,” Ms Justice Dunne said.

She noted the effects the crime had on the woman and said she hoped she could now move on with her life.

She imposed a 10-year sentence on the rape charge and a concurrent 2½-year sentence on the sex assault. The man was registered as a sex offender.

Detective Garda Pauline McDonagh told Mr Sean Guerin BL, prosecuting, that the victim had been living in Co Sligo at the time with her father and sister.

She said she was coming out of the shower wrapped in a towel as her father was coming out of his room. She could hear her father’s friend laughing downstairs.

Her father followed her into her bedroom and pushed her on to the bed. The towel fell to the ground and he took down his tracksuit bottoms and raped her.

She was crying at the time because it was sore. She said she had never had sex before.

She told her father to get her off or she would scream but he said he would only be five more minutes.

She said it lasted for about 10 or 15 minutes and when he stopped, he called her “a whore”, after she threatened to cry out or scream again.

The incident was not reported to the gardaí until October 2007 when the girl made a statement with the assistance of a social worker.

Her father was arrested eight days later but Det Gda McDonagh said he “categorically denied any involvement” in the subsequent garda interview.

Det Gda McDonagh agreed with Mr Guerin that the man offered three explanations during his trial for his daughter’s accusation of rape.

He claimed that she had a problem with drugs at the time; he had found her with stolen property and she had been embarrassed when he made her return it; and he made a previous remark to her that he wished he had never had any daughters.

He said that his daughter also had a problem with his girlfriend at the time.

Mr Miceál O'Connor BL, defending, told Ms Justice Dunne that his client continues to maintain his innocence and intends to appeal both verdicts.