Updated at 4.15pm
A RETIRED SOLDIER who raped his daughter and regularly abused another daughter has been jailed for ten years.
Justice Patrick McCarthy said that Jerry O’Keeffe’s crimes brought about the destruction of his daughters’ childhoods.
“It is hard to find words to describe each new outrage inflicted on these children,” the judge said.
O’Keeffe (68), of Oakhill, Youghal, Cork, pleaded guilty at the Central Criminal Court to three charges of rape, five of indecent assault and one of sexual assault. These were nine sample charges out of a total of 78 covering a period from January 1980 to March 1987.
At a pre-sentencing hearing last October Timothy O’Leary SC, prosecuting, told the court that both women were waiving their right to anonymity.
Speaking outside court today, Amy Barrett said she and her sister Melissa O’Keeffe were happy with the sentence but sad at the same time as O’Keeffe is still their father.
“It’s almost like we’re in mourning for him now,” Barrett said.
“It was never about the sentence it was always about an admission of guilt, keeping him away from other kids, and getting closure for ourselves,” she said.
Justice Patrick McCarthy said O’Keeffe committed extremely serious offences and it beggared belief that a man could behave in such a fashion.
In her victim impact statement, Amy Barrett described her childhood as very traumatic and said she was “a mixed bag of confusion and terror” as a result of her father’s crimes.
Previously the court heard that the rape charges and two charges of indecent assault related to O’Keeffe’s eldest daughter, Amy Barrett, and took place at the family home at The Arch, Youghal, Co Cork.
Justice McCarthy said the defendant’s rape of his daughter Amy occurred over a period of five years, starting when she was eight years old, was a commonplace event and amounted to “repeated extremely serious abuse”.
He said the assaults against Melissa O’Keeffe which began when she was 11 and went on for six years, were also extremely serious.
Justice McCarthy said their victim impact statements conveyed a degree of hurt and pain that was difficult to understand. He added that their experience was best surmised by Barrett’s statement that she loved and trusted her Dad, and he, in turn, had betrayed that trust.
Justice McCarthy said he was taking O’Keeffe’s guilty plea into account in mitigation, but said it came “not at the eleventh hour but at five minutes to midnight” after legal proceedings had commenced.
Referring to O’Keefe’s age, he said “these days 68 is no great age” and said it would not count towards mitigation of his sentence. He said the case merited consecutive sentences relating to each daughter, and that the appropriate total period of incarceration was ten years.
He imposed a seven-year sentence for the rape offences and a three-year term of imprisonment for the sexual assaults, to run consecutively.
Justice McCarthy instructed that O’Keeffe’s name be added to the sex offenders register and said he must liaise with the probation services for a period of three years following his release.
Today, Amy Barrett encouraged other victims of sexual abuse and rape to come forward, saying it’s never too late.
“It’s not your fault. I didn’t ask for this and Melissa didn’t ask for this either,” she said.
During the sentencing hearing last month, Sergeant John Sharkey told the court that O’Keefe regularly asked Amy, who was aged eight at the time, to sit on his lap in the sitting room. He would then sexually assault her before bringing her upstairs to his bedroom where he would remove his clothes and rape her. The abuse ended in 1985 when she was aged 12.
In her victim impact statement, Amy Barrett said she found making friends very difficult and attempted suicide after the birth of her first child “just to get some peace”. She said still suffers from panic attacks and the sexual abuse took most of her confidence away.
Barrett paid tribute to the Rape Crisis Centre in Cork, who she said supported her throughout the last few years since she reported the matter to gardaí.
“I have had feelings of guilt, shame, embarrassment and hurt for years but today I hand them back to my dad,” she said.
The remaining charges against O’Keeffe related to the abuse of his younger daughter, Melissa O’Keeffe, and took place at the family’s new home at Catherine’s Street, Youghal, Co Cork.
O’Keeffe would go into the child’s bedroom late at night after returning from the pub and climb into bed beside her. He would then molest her, the court heard.
The sisters reported the abuse to the Southern Health Board in 1999 after attending the Rape Crisis Centre in Cork. As a result, O’Keeffe agreed to leave the family home and no further action was taken against him.
Melissa O’Keeffe said she went to gardaí in 1999 but withdrew the allegations after her parents confronted her. Both victims reported the matter to gardaí again in October 2014.
A victim impact statement on behalf of O’Keeffe described how she resisted calling out for her mother in case she got into trouble.
“I went to gardaí to make a complaint in 1999 but my parents confronted me so I had to lie and say I made it all up,” she said.
O’Keeffe said she found it hard to settle in relationships as a result of the abuse.
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