'A monster': Man admits sexual assault of his daughter and cruelty to his son
Accused will be sentenced on February 12. File picture: Larry Cummins
A 43-year-old man has confessed to cruelty to his son and assaulting his daughter sexually and causing her harm at the family home and the two victims have spoken out about their terrible fear of their father.
Disturbing evidence was heard of the girl being 15 when she was physically and sexually assaulted by her father and her brother was aged 12 to 13 at the time his dad treated him with cruelty, leaving him with damage to his nervous system.
Sergeant Liam O’Dwyer testified at Cork Circuit Criminal Court the sexual assault involved the accused man touching his 15-year-old daughter’s vagina.
The count of assault causing harm to her occurred before Christmas 2019, on December 16 that year, when he went into her bed and struck her in the stomach and leg and pushed her face into a pillow, causing her to bleed and making it difficult to breathe.
The cruelty to his son included an occasion in September/October of the same year, when he punched his son and dragged him into his bedroom. He jumped on the kitchen table, effectively cornering his son as he verbally abused him when his mother was not at home. The accused told his son he hated his laugh and told him during that one-year period not to laugh.
“I endured physical and sexual assaults from my father. It impacted me in my life in so many ways. The person who should have loved me and cared for me did not show it. It was never there with the person I should have been able to trust.
“Instead of showing me love he imposed fear on me — walking on eggshells every day, sometimes being afraid to go to school, fearing what he would do to my mum. When he sexually assaulted me, I was home from school sick. Why my father of all people was doing this, I remember feeling frozen.
I thought my life was going to come to an end. I will never forgive him for this. I will forever be haunted by this horrific event. I am still haunted by nightmares of him and the abuse. I feel I will never be free of the pain.”
Now 19, she said four more years of her life were wasted by her father not admitting the abuse until now.
The defendant’s son has been left with damage to his nervous system as a result of the cruelty. “I feel disgusted by him because he gave me a life sentence,” he said.
In school, he felt embarrassed describing his family and leaving out reference to the father and now feels he has missed out on his childhood.
“I never let my guard down around people… I need to go to the bathroom in school for panic attacks. He would hit me literally over nothing… all the painful names he called me, I felt so small, belittled and unloved. I knew he enjoyed making me feel that way.
The two injured parties sat closely together with their mother and maternal grandfather for the court hearing.
On behalf of the accused, Jane Hyland, senior counsel, said he apologised to his family. She said he had now effectively lost his family and suffers depression, anxiety and sleep deprivation.
“He is now effectively a very lonely man, a very isolated man. This is a man who has lost everything.
“He has been using his time in prison as best he can to try to become a better person… He has learned to play guitar, he will be learning piano and is doing pottery,” Ms Hyland said.
Judge Colin Daly said he would sentence the accused on February 12. He is already serving a sentence of four and a half years for a December 2019 sexual assault of an eight-year-old girl, with whom he had no family connection.
- If you are affected by any of the issues raised in this article, please click here for a list of support services.
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