A GRANDFATHER HAS been sentenced to 12 months in prison for the sexual assault of his granddaughter seven years ago.

Dublin Circuit Criminal Court heard that the man, who is now in his mid-seventies and cannot be named in order to protect the identity of the complainant, pleaded guilty to two counts of sexual assault which took place in a house in Dublin on 27 December 2016.

He has no previous convictions.

Passing sentence, Judge Sarah Berkeley noted a victim impact statement prepared by the mother in which she outlined the devastating effects the offence had on her daughter.

Judge Berkeley said the man’s culpability was high and the offences was aggravated by factors including the significant breach of trust and the disparity in age.

The judge said there was no such thing as child sexual abuse that was low or insignificant in the court’s view, but this offence did fall at the lower end of the spectrum for this offending.

She set a headline sentence of two years before taking into account mitigating factors such as his early guilty plea, remorse and the devasting effect on his family life.

She noted he had lost his family and social life.

Judge Berkeley sentenced the man to 18 months’ imprisonment and suspended the final six months.

Detective Garda David Egan told Aoife McNickle, BL, prosecuting, that on the night of 29 December 2016, the accused was babysitting his granddaughter and her cousin.

The then 10-year-old called her mother and she returned home immediately.

Gardaí were alerted, and the girl was interviewed by specialist gardaí.

Detective Garda Egan said that during her specialist interview, the girl said she had been upstairs playing with her cousin.

At one stage, both children went downstairs, and she noted that her grandfather had been drinking and described him as “kind of drunk”.

The girl told gardaí that later, her grandfather came upstairs when both children were playing on their laptops.

The accused lay down beside his granddaughter and put his head on her chest.

She told gardaí that he touched her “in her private area”.

The girl described this private area as what she uses to pee.

The accused used his fingers to touch the child outside of her clothes.

The girl said in her interview she could not get up as he was half lying on her.

Her cousin’s view was blocked, and her cousin was looking at their laptop.

The girl asked to “get up and get something to eat”, and the accused replied, “Ah yeah, in a minute”.

The court heard that the girl got up, and her grandfather gave her cousin a hug. The cousin then walked out of the room.

The girl described her grandfather as “French kissing” her with an open mouth. He placed his hand on the back of her head so she couldn’t move.

He then whispered to the girl, “This is our little secret”, and told her not to “tell anyone”.

The girl went to her mother’s bedroom and went to call her, but her phone was dead.

While waiting for her phone to charge, her brother arrived home, and the girl used his phone to call her mother, who returned home immediately.

The accused was arrested in November 2017 and interviewed. He denied all sexual assault allegations.

Detective Garda Egan agreed with Maurice Coffey SC, defending, that the girl’s mother confronted the accused (her father) the day after the assault.

She asked her father why her daughter would have said this, and he replied, “I wouldn’t do that”.

She then asked him if her daughter was lying, and he said, “no”.

Mr Coffey said there has been a “complete breakdown in the family relationship” and his client is “isolated socially from his family, and that is his own fault”.