Older of two girls describes being treated like 'a princess by day and abused by night' by man jailed for their assault

A UK businessman convicted of sexually abusing two girls targeted them when they were being neglected by their mother and moved the family to Ireland to avoid detection.

The 37-year-old man, who cannot be named to protect the identity of his victims, was found guilty at Dublin Central Criminal Court of three counts of rape and eight counts of sexually assaulting two girls at addresses in Dublin and Louth between December 3, 2010 and March 10, 2011, when they were aged 10 and 12 years old.

Mr Justice Michael White noted that the man still maintains his innocence and disputes the verdicts. He said a mitigating factor of a guilty plea was not available to him in sentencing.

The judge said these were “grave offences” and crimes at the most serious level.

He said it was clear the offences had had a “devastating” effect on the two victims who would have to live with the breach on their innocence for the rest of their lives.

He imposed a 14-year custodial sentence but suspended the last two years on condition that the man keep the peace for the entirety of the 14-year sentence. He also ordered that the man must participate in the “Better Lives” treatment programme for sex offenders to avail of the suspension.

An investigation was launched after two girls had been taken into care in 2011 and the man fled to Chile. He was extradited from the United States in 2014 after gardaí heard he was planning to fly to Florida for a business trip and was brought back to Ireland after US marshals in Florida handed him over to gardaí.

Detective Garda Michael Scanlon told Pauline Walley SC, prosecuting, the girls were living with their mother and younger siblings in the UK.

The man came into their lives in early 2010 and shortly afterwards, the family moved into his house in a nearby upmarket area.

He showered the children with gifts, holidays and trips to theme parks. UK social services had already been heavily involved with the mother and children and they became increasingly concerned that the man had daily control of the children and appeared to be involved in their “physical grooming”.

In November 2011, when UK social services ramped up their intervention with the family, the family left the jurisdiction “under the control” of the man and moved to Louth.

The court heard the mother was often absent from the family home, travelling to the UK or other parts of Ireland. The man regularly sexually assaulted both girls in bed at night. This progressed to rape on a number of occasions.

Det. Gda Scanlon said that in December 2010, the man and the older girl travelled to Dublin and got caught up in the snowy weather at the time. They ended up staying the night in a hotel and the man sexually assaulted and raped the girl in the room that night.

Later that night, when the girl was asleep, local gardaí called to the room to check up on her. This was due to a notification in the system from UK social services.

They found nothing untoward, saw that the girl was asleep and left. Afterwards the man woke the girl up and sexually assaulted her again.

There was a delay in communication between UK and Irish social services, with Irish social services getting involved with the family in January 2011. Teachers also became concerned when they saw the man kissing the youngest girl on the lips a number of times.

In March 2011, the man told a social worker that he was not in a relationship with the children's mother. The mother was away at the time and social workers became “increasingly concerned” about her absences and the control the man had over the children.

Shortly afterwards, the alarm was raised when the man took the children out of the jurisdiction while their mother was in hospital, the court heard. The mother had previously refused to allow the children to be placed in voluntary care while she was in hospital and it later emerged that she told the man to take the children.

The children were returned to Ireland and placed immediately in foster care, where they have remained ever since. Their mother is facing prosecution in relation to her care of the children.

Shortly after entering care the girls disclosed the abuse to their foster parents.

After the man was extradited, he was released on bail for some time and lived in Dublin, where he studied at third-level. He has been in custody since the trial and has no previous convictions.

His two victims, now aged 17 and 19, read out victim impact statements in court. Both victims described how their family was divided and torn apart by the abuse, how their lives were upended and how they had to deal with the trauma of the abuse far away from their extended family and friends.

The younger girl said she thought the man was her “saviour” when he improved their lives so materially. “Then I learned this was at a cost,” she said.

She said she used to consider throwing herself off a balcony to end things and had struggled with an eating disorder as a result of the abuse.

“I have lived with this for seven years,” she said. “I crave normality. I wish I had a normal life. I wish I had someone who loved me.”

The older girl said the man came into her life at a time when she was extremely vulnerable. She said she thought he was her “hero” and then couldn't believe what he did to her at night. She said she lived in denial for a long time.

“In my childish brain, I thought that if I didn't think about the monster in the bed, then it couldn't hurt me,” she said.

She said the man continues to torment her memories and fears she will never be able to have a proper relationship with a man. She struggles with self-harm, anxiety and panic attacks.

She said the 12-week trial was extremely traumatic. “There was no chance of me ever coming out of this unscathed,” she said.

The older victim, now aged 19, said she was treated like “a princess by day and abused by night”, the court heard.

She is “profoundly angry” at her mother, who she believes knew exactly what was going on and who she believes was deliberately “pimping” out the girls so she could live a carefree life.

Caroline Biggs SC, defending, said the crimes were not at the highest scale of offending. She said the crimes were “involving young children, but not very, very young children.”

She said the man had been subjected to domestic violence as a child. Letters of support written by the man's mother, brother, partner and ex-wife were presented in court.

After passing sentence Mr Justice White paid tribute to the professionalism shown by the investigating gardaí. He also described the behaviour of the foster parents as the “one ray of hope in an otherwise very bleak court”.