Roscommon abuse case - We all have questions to answer

AT LEAST Josef Fritzl, the Austrian who locked his daughter in a cellar for 24 years and fathered seven children with her — one of whom he murdered by neglect — felt the need to conceal his depravities.

The couple at the centre of the Roscommon abuse nightmare, where they drunkenly and openly abused and neglected their children for 15 years, felt no such compunction.

On Monday, a 52-year-old man, who cannot be named, was found guilty at the Central Criminal Court of 47 charges of sexual abuse and rape of his son. The jury heard that the son had been orally and anally raped by this man from the age of 12 to 15, when he was taken into care. The perpetrator — calling him a father demeans every man who loves and protects his children — awaits sentencing. His wife is serving a seven-year sentence for incest with another son, and for abuse and neglect of all six of their children.