A MAN WHO strangled his ex-girlfriend to death in his native country will be sentenced later for continually beating and twice raping his 12-year-old step-daughter.

The 32-year-old man, who cannot be named to protect the identity of the victim, served a 10 year term after he was convicted of killing his former girlfriend. He was released from prison on condition that he not leave his native EU state until January 2022.

He came to Co Cork in 2019, met the child’s mother and married her two months later. The child had not met the man, as she was away with her father at the time and was introduced to him for the first time at the end of summer 2019 when he had moved into the family home she shared with her mother.

An investigating officer told Lorcan Staines SC, prosecuting, that gardaí were called to the family home in May 2020 after a neighbour alerted them to a domestic incident there.

On arrival officers noticed that the child had a cut and bruising to the bridge of her nose and had bruised eyes. Her mother, the accused and the child all claimed that she had sustained the injuries after she had fallen down the stairs.

Gardaí returned to the house that same evening to check on the welfare of the child and one officer spoke to the child alone in the kitchen. The teenager again reiterated that she had hurt herself having fallen down the stairs but later rolled up the sleeve of a jumper to reveal a large bruise to her arm.

She admitted the accused man had hurt her and showed the garda further bruising. The girl was taken from the home that evening and put in emergency care. She has not returned since and is now living with an adoptive family.

The garda told Staines that the child was taken to a garda station where she was questioned by specialist garda interviewers. She initially only spoke of a number of incidents of being beaten by the man but later passed a note to say that she had also been sexually abused.

She was interviewed a second time during which she disclosed three episodes of sexual assault and two incidents of rape by the accused in April 2020.

The man pleaded not guilty at the Central Criminal Court to a number of charges of child cruelty which involved the assault of a child, assault causing harm, sexual assault and rape at the home in Co Cork on dates between September 2019 and May 2020.

Last July, a jury convicted him on one charge of assault causing harm, six charges of child cruelty involving assault, three charges of sexual assault and two charges or rape. The man has been on remand in custody since June 2020.

Ronan Munro SC, defending, confirmed to Ms Justice Deirdre Murphy that his client still maintains his innocence.

He submitted that as a foreign national in an Irish prison, the man will find his time in custody more difficult than other inmates.

Munro suggested to the court, that given that the child is fearful of meeting her step-father again, his client will undertake to leave Ireland on completion of his sentence if the judge chooses to suspend a proportion of his sentence on condition that he never return to this country again.

Ms Justice Murphy said she needed time to consider the case and adjourned sentencing until 22 October, next.