Man jailed for repeated rape of 10-year-old Kerry girl

A father-of-three who repeatedly raped a 10-year-old girl was arrested after he was traced to London by Interpol.

The 42-year-old was jailed for 10 years after being found guilty of eight counts including rape, oral rape, attempted anal rape and sexual assault of a child.

He had pleaded not guilty at the Central Criminal Court to the offenses, which took place at a house in Kerry between December 25, 2001 and January 31, 2002.

Defence counsel, Mr Anthony Sammon SC, told Mr Justice Barry White that his client did not accept the jury’s decision.

In her victim impact statement the victim, now 20, said that the abuse had “ruined her life”.

She said that as a result of the attacks she began drinking and taking drugs at the age of 10.

She said: “It was the only thing that would black out the pain. Now I’m an addict.”

She told the court that her own child has been taken off her because of her addiction issues but that she was starting to deal with these issues until the trial began.

She said: “I started drinking and taking drugs again when the trial began. I hope the nightmares will stop someday. This has ruined my life.”

Detective Garda Bill Stack told Ms Karen O’Connor BL, prosecuting, that the guilty man was 32 when he moved into the home of his brother’s partner, the victim’s mother.

In the five-week period while he stayed there the man raped the girl three times, orally raped her twice, twice sexually assaulted her and on one occasion attempted to anally rape her.

In 2009, the victim made a complaint to gardaí who then contacted Interpol in order to put a trace on the man.

Interpol came up with an address for him in London, where he was living with a partner and their three children and gardaí travelled to interview the man.

The man was extradited to Ireland in September 2010 and held in custody until his trial.

Ms O’Connor said man abused a position of trust while staying in the child’s home and he regularly “preyed” on the “vulnerable victim”.

The court heard that in one incident the man was very drunk and came into the girl’s room where she was sleeping.

He woke her up by shaking her and then lifted her over his shoulder and brought her into her baby brother’s room. He was staggering and slurring his words and he got on top of her and raped her. She was crying as he told her: “Good girl, good girl”.

Justice White said the man had shown no signs of remorse and had put the victim through the ordeal of a trial. He said the offences were on the upper end of the scale.

He sentenced him to 10 years for each of the rape offenses and four years for the sexual assault offenses, to run concurrently from the date of his arrest in September 2010.