A Kerry pensioner has been convicted of eight counts of sexual assault of his sister-in-law over forty years ago.
The 74-year-old man, who cannot be named to protect the identity of the now 53-year-old woman, had been charged with 11 counts of indecent assault on various dates between January 1, 1971 and December 31, 1974.
The man was found guilty by a jury of eight men and four women after a four-day trial at the Central Criminal Court in front of Ms Justice Margaret Heneghan. The jury were in disagreement on the final three counts.
Prosecuting Counsel Paul Burns SC told the court that the abuse began when the woman was 10 years of age and mainly occurred at the man’s house in Kerry, where the victim would often stay the night when visiting her older sister.
The court heard that there was also one incident of abuse at another relative’s house, when the woman was alone and the man turned up at the front door uninvited.
The woman told her family of the abuse in 1986, but did not report it to gardaí until 2007. When the man was taken into custody and questioned in January 2008, he told gardai that the allegations were ‘all lies’ and he ‘never touched a child in his life’.
The woman told the court that her sister, who was married to the accused, was like a ‘surrogate mother’ to her due to a 14 year age gap. She visited her sister at least once a month and often slept over – sharing a room at the back of the house with two of her sister’s daughter’s, who she was close in age to.
The woman told the court how the man used to come into the room when the other two children were asleep and start pulling her bed sheets off her. When she tried to push him off and protested, he would tell her ‘Shush you’ll wake the children’.
She told the court that man abused her between 30 and 40 times, but that it became less frequent in 1974 after which it eventually stopped.
She told the court how he would put his fingers inside her and use his tongue to penetrate her. ‘I knew it was wrong. He hurt me, he always hurt me,’ she said.
She said the abuse always followed a pattern, lasted about ten minutes and would stop when the man heard a noise in the house and thought someone else was awake.
She said that on one occasion the man’s baby son was sleeping in a cot in the same room, while he abused her.
Defence Counsel Dominic McGinn SC asked for leniency in sentencing due to the man’s mature years and medical complications. He also pointed out that the man has no previous convictions. Ms Justice Heneghan remanded him on bail until sentence on March 23.
