A MAN WHO raped and sexually assaulted his youngest sister has been jailed for six years.

Paul Mohan (42) of Grangegeeth, Collon, Co Meath and formerly of Westcourt, Drogheda, Co Louth, pleaded guilty to ten counts of raping his youngest sister on dates between 1996 and 2001. He also pleaded guilty to sexual assault of his sister, including one incident in 2004.

He worked previously as a photographer and has no previous convictions.

His sister, who waived her anonymity to allow her brother to be named, told the court how she had believed the abuse was normal as a child, but as she became older realised it was wrong.

She described how her mental health suffered and she had lost much of her childhood. She said she felt damaged, dirty and worthless and struggled to tell her husband what had happened.

She described the distress of keeping the secret from her family and said telling her parents was the hardest thing she ever had to do. She said her family have been supportive and she can finally talk about what happened, now taking one day at a time and no longer carrying the pain, fear, sadness and shame that had weighed her down for the best part of 30 years.

Sentencing Mohan today, Justice Paul McDermott described the woman’s victim impact statement as “moving” in which she outlined how she has suffered life-long consequences due to the abuse.

He noted that as Mohan acted as her wedding photographer, the day was “totally ruined” for the woman.

The judge said the woman was concerned about how the revelation of the abuse would affect her parents and described in her statement how the abuse impacted her own relationship with her husband and children.

Justice McDermott accepted that Mohan expressed horror on learning of how the abuse affected his sister.

“He ought to have been protective of his younger sister,” Justice McDermott said before he added that the abuse occurred “somewhere she ought to have felt protected”.

The judge said that as Mohan had abused his sister at a time when she was effectively in his care the offending represented “a dreadful breach of family trust”.

“The offences dominated her life then and beyond. They were repeated over many years and involved many different types of sexual abuse,” Justice McDermott said before he added that many of the offences were “humiliating and degrading”.

He said the victim had “a right to bodily integrity and human dignity” and that she had been “clearly living in fear”. He added that the offending had been repeated over a number of years and were committed “on a vulnerable and defenceless child”.

Justice McDermott said if the offending had been committed when Mohan was an adult the headline sentence would be 14 years but said considering his age at the time, a headline sentence of ten years was more appropriate.

He took mitigating factors, including his lack of previous convictions, expression of remorse and plea of guilty into account, before he imposed a sentence of seven and half years for the rape offences.

He imposed consecutive sentences totalling five years for the sexual assault offences but ordered that those sentences would run concurrently with the seven and half year term.

Justice McDermott suspended the final 18 months of the sentence on strict conditions including that Mohan engages with the Probation Service for three years upon his release and undertake any programme the service deems appropriate. He is not to contact the complainant, nor her husband or children in any way and is not allowed unsupervised access to children.

The judge said a post-release supervision order was not necessary as Mohan would be under the supervision of the Probation Service for three years once released from prison.

The following statement was given by the complainant’s brother outside of the Criminal Courts of Justice:

On behalf of my sister, Annette. Annette would like to thank all the services involved to arrive at today’s outcome. A special thank you to our family who have supported me every step of the way.Today, Annette begins the start of a new chapter in her life. She hopes that today’s outcome will encourage any other victims of sexual abuse, to have the strength to come forward. Help and support is out there.

Annette and her family will make no further comment and ask that our privacy be respected. Thank you very much.