Man found guilty of sexually assaulting daughter, 10, while her mother was downstairs

"You may very well genuinely believe that it happened but I am putting it to you that she (her mother) put it into your head," defence counsel said.

Following the second incident, she told her mother but said she "tried to make me forget all about" her father's abuse, never raising it again with her. File picture: iStock

A man has been found guilty of sexually assaulting his daughter when she was 10 years old in Co. Waterford.

The man, aged 55, had pleaded not guilty to two counts of sexual assault, with the first taking place on an unknown date at the girl's home between April 22, 2007, and 21 April, 2009. The second took place on an occasion outside of that date range.

Following just over four hours of deliberations, the jury of eight men and four women returned majority guilty verdicts on both counts. Ten jurors found him guilty and two dissented.

The victim, now aged in her early 20s, broke into tears upon hearing the decision. The accused, wearing a torn dark grey coat, navy top and jeans, made no response.

Waterford Circuit Criminal Court heard the man, who cannot be identified for legal reasons, brought his daughter to her mother’s bed on two occasions and removed her pants before touching her privates with his hand, while her mother was downstairs at the home.

The young woman said her father had told her she was 'getting older now' during the assaults. For the second incident, when he pulled down her underwear, he sniffed them before trying to place her hand on his genitals. She refused, leading him to walk away.

Following this she told her mother but said she "tried to make me forget all about" her father's abuse, never raising it again with her.

She said:

I lived in a home where it was as if it didn't happen. 

The woman's parents were in an on-off relationship for many years and lived apart. "I believed that if you went against my father there would be consequences," she said, adding that her mother was petrified of him.

The daughter later spent around a year living with her father while her mother was unwell. Her parents had another child some time following the second assault.

However, in 2017, her mother contacted gardaí about the assaults, but the victim was unhappy this was done without her knowledge and refused to speak to gardaí.

"She was coming from a good place but with something as sensitive as this...I said I would do it on my own terms and I am ready now," the young woman told the court. She made a formal statement to Waterford gardaí in 2018.

Under cross-examination from defence senior counsel Eileen O'Leary, the woman said she still had loved her father. The defence raised her mother's unwell mental state, which caused her to hear things that were not real, and put it to the woman her father had never abused her.

Counsel said:

You may very well genuinely believe that it happened but I am putting it to you that she (her mother) put it into your head.

Speaking through tears the young woman responded: "If I had one wish, it is for it not to be real so I could still have my dad with me."

Following the guilty verdicts, state prosecutor Conor O'Doherty SC said the man would be placed on the sex offenders register.

Judge Eugene O'Kelly remanded him on continuing bail, requiring him to sign on weekly with gardaí, not to make contact with his daughter and to be present at court on April 26, where a date may be provided for sentencing.

- If you are affected by any of the issues raised in this article, please click here for a list of support services.