A 72-year-old man who repeatedly and humiliatingly sexually assaulted his three young nieces over a ten-year period has been sentenced to 18 years in prison, reports RTE.
The man, who cannot be identified to protect the victim’s name, was described by a judge as a “voracious sexual predator masquerading as a kindly uncle” while abusing young children.
The abuse of girls begins when they are seven and eight years old and continues into their teenage years.
The man pleaded guilty to 16 counts of rape, attempted rape, sexual assault and indecent assault between 1985 and 1995.
The judge said an 18-year sentence “”might be regarded as harsh” given his adult status, but added: “if a single instance (of rape) merits seven years, what do you do with a dozen, or two dozen or hundreds of offences?” reports RTE.
The court found that the abuse occurred in various places, including the man’s home, his car and the homes of his two victims.
Violence includes rape, attempted rape and inappropriate touching.
“This is due to what was described as a multitude of offences, spanning period of 10 years,” he said, reports RTE.
The judge imposed a substantive sentence of 25 years in prison, which he reduced to 20 years, noting that the man was now 72 years old and a longer sentence could have been “crushing” for him.
He suspended the sentence “perpetually” for another two years.
“The period of his wrongdoing and the harm it caused calls for a serious sentence, which he may or may not survive,” Mr Justice Hunt said.
In an earlier hearing, the court was informed that the first victim was about seven-years-old when the abuse started.
It then occurred until she was in her fifth year of secondary school.
The younger sister of the first complainant is the second victim, and she recalled the man would try to touch her and this happened “hundreds of times”.
“I may not have visible scars to show, but I wish you could spend a day inside my head to see how eight-year-old me felt”, she said, reports RTE.
“What he did followed and haunted me for nearly 35 years,” she said, describing it as a “life sentence”, she added, reports RTE.
Tell us your thoughts in the Facebook post and share this with your friends.