A MAN WHO sexually assaulted his intellectually disabled adult daughter 17 years ago after calling to her home drunk will be sentenced next week.
The 75-year-old man, who cannot be named to protect the identity of his daughter, told gardaí on arrest that he hadn’t much recollection of the attack. He said if she said he did it, he must have because she “doesn’t tell lies”.
The man pleaded guilty at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court to sexual assaulting the then 34-year-old at her Dublin flat on 23 October 1999. He has one previous conviction from 1989 for forgery.
Letters from daughters
He said he called to his daughter’s flat that night because he was “well oiled” and his girlfriend didn’t like it when he came home drunk.
The woman told specialist garda interviewers when she reported the crime years later that she was certain of the date because she remembered she was wearing a pink striped top and her cat was neutered that day.
The court heard that the woman’s parents were long separated. Her mother and some of her sisters were in court to support her, while one of her sisters was present with her father and acted as a defence witness for him.
There were also letters from some of the man’s other daughters handed into court on his behalf.
Pregnancy fear
Detective Garda Ann McGowan told Fionnuala O’Sullivan BL, prosecuting that the woman told specialist interviewers that she let her father into flat and he held her too tight before he put his hands down the inside of her pants and touched her breasts.
He then “took out his thing” from his trousers and later lay on top of her.
She said she tried to push him off her but he was too heavy. She was afraid he would never get off her. She eventually knocked him off the bed and she was worried that he had hit his head off “a metal thing around the fireplace”.
He slept there and left the following day. She described feeling “manky and dirty”.
She was worried that she was going to end up pregnant but she later told officers that her father only “rubbed his thing off my leg”.
The now 51-year-old woman read her victim impact statement. She said writing it made her cry.
She was worried that nobody would believe her and found it difficult to talk to gardaí for that reason.
“Like my life was taken away from me”
“They will believe me now because they know I am telling the truth,” the woman said.
It was like my life was taken away from me and it was like it was my fault that this happened to me, but it was not my fault. It was my father’s fault.
“I hope now to achieve my dreams. I want to take control back on my life. I hope some day my life will be good and will bring me happiness and peace. When court is over I hope justice will be done,” the woman concluded.
Heartfelt apology
Keith Spencer BL, defending, told the woman that her father wished to offer “his heartfelt apology for what happened”.
He also said that the victim’s sister, who was supporting their father in court, wanted to be part of her life but she felt she needed to look out for their father too.
Judge Melanie Greally spoke to the woman before she adjourned the case and told her that she “very much admired” what she had done in court.
“It took great bravery,” the judge said, before she explained to the woman that she had to adjourn the case to Monday to allow for the preparation of a medical report for the accused in relation to a recent diagnosis.
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