Man jailed for rape of one sister and abuse of two others
Isabel Hayes
A man who sexually abused his three sisters 50 years ago when they were all children, raping the youngest when she was aged between four and six, has been jailed for 18 months.
The 63-year-old Galway man, who cannot be named to protect the anonymity of his victims, raped his youngest sister in her bed when she was a small child, the Central Criminal Court heard.
Prior to this, he indecently assaulted two other sisters when they were aged between six and 10 by attempting to anally rape them in their beds at night, a local detective garda told Michael Hourigan SC, prosecuting. He was aged between 10 and just over 15 years old at the time, the court heard.
The abuse came to light when the youngest sister started struggling with the feeling she had been abused as a child, following the birth of her first baby many years later.
When her brother called her to wish her happy birthday around this time, she asked him if an uncle of theirs had abused her, and he told her that it was in fact him.
During this phone call with the youngest sister, who was living abroad at the time, the man also confessed to abusing the other two sisters by attempting to anally rape them one night when they were asleep in their beds.
These sisters did not have specific memories of the abuse, and the man's revelations had a profound impact on family relations for the next 20 years, the court heard.
The women did not report the abuse for a number of reasons, including concern for their mother who was “devastated” by the disclosure, and out of concern for the man's own children.
When the man's daughter read his diary outlining the abuse of his sisters in 2022, it became known in the wider family and gardai were informed. When interviewed voluntarily by gardaí, the man made immediate admissions and gave details of how he had abused his sisters.
He said that he stopped raping his younger sister when she told him to stop because he “knew it should be something beautiful”. In relation to his other two sisters, he said he thought they were both asleep when he assaulted them.
He pleaded guilty to one count of rape of his youngest sister at the Galway family home on dates between January 1976 and December 1977, when she was aged between four and six.
He further pleaded guilty to two counts of indecently assaulting his other sisters on dates between January 1973 and December 1975.
Imposing sentence on Thursday, Judge Paul McDermott noted the hurt and damage caused to the three victims and how their lives were affected by the feeling that they had been abused, but having no memory of it.
He said it was “crystal clear” that the defendant knew what he was doing was wrong and that he broke the bond of trust between siblings.
The judge noted the deep sense of betrayal felt by the victims and that the man sought to continue his relationship with them down the years, and they continued without any knowledge of what had happened. As a result, “shared family occasions are tainted in retrospect,” the judge said.
The judge also noted these offences occurred many years ago when the victims and the defendant were all children.
He said there was significant mitigation, including the man’s guilty pleas, adding that it is “difficult to conceive of how this court case could have been prosecuted in the absence of his admission as the victims did not have recollection of what occurred”.
The judge imposed a global two-year sentence with the final six months suspended on strict conditions.
He directed the man to place himself under the supervision of the Probation Services for 12 months post-release. The judge said as the man was a juvenile at the time of the offending, he would be placed on the sex offenders’ register for 12 months.
In their victim impact statements, the three women outlined the effects the abuse has had on them for the last 50 years.
The youngest sister said her way of coping “was to completely bury it”. “I buried it so deep, it was possibly a quarter of a century before it was uncovered,” she said.
She recalled struggling with anxiety and low mood in the wake of the birth of her first child, eventually going to therapy and continuing to “struggle with the feeling I had been assaulted as a child and also that I was crazy”.
She said that after the phone call with her brother, in which he revealed he had abused her, she started wailing. “I never suspected a phone call to wish me happy birthday would turn into a callous, cold-hearted confession of incest,” she said.
In the years after his disclosure, the woman said her brother seemed to expect things to carry on as normal between them. On one occasion when she tried to talk to him about it, she said he responded: “I thought you were over this.”
She said it seemed like everyone else in the family carried the shame, except for him.
“There was a time when I loved my brother,” she said. “That was before I could consciously acknowledge that my brother raped me in the family home.”
She said her victim impact statement could not fully describe the “depths of despair” she feels, partly because she was aware he would have the right to read her statement before his sentence hearing. “I don't want him to know my innermost thoughts,” she said.
The second sister also read her victim impact statement to the court, in which she outlined how, when her brother's abuse of her was disclosed, “many things seemed to make sense” including a fear she had of her brother as a child.
“I was terrified in bed at night,” she said. “I felt frightened he would come to my room and do something to me. I thought there was something wrong with me.”
She said she later realised “this was my body and mind responding to the trauma I couldn't consciously process at the time.”
She said she and her brother were extremely close as they grew older. “There was a time I loved him dearly,” she said. Now she said, she feels “hurt, betrayal and lasting damage caused by his actions”.
The third sister was not present in court, and her victim impact statement was read out by her daughter. She said she was “heartbroken and devastated that this is the course of action we had to take against our older brother, whom we loved”.
She said he behaved for years as if nothing had happened and that they were made to feel like they should have “got past it”. “That choice was taken from us as children,” she said.
“I know I will carry this heartbreak with me to my grave.”
In his plea of mitigation, John Berry SC, defending, said his client had acknowledged his wrongdoing from an early stage, making admissions to his youngest sister about 20 years ago.
He said that the man admitted what he did to his sister at a time when he could have blamed their uncle, who was dead by that time. Counsel said that for a period of time, the man was drinking seven days a week “to block out what he had done”.
The diary in which he outlined the abuse he committed was part of his rehabilitation for alcoholism, the court heard.
Defence counsel submitted the man was as young as 11 when he committed the indecent assaults against his sisters and as young as 13 when he raped his younger sister. He must be sentenced as a child as a result, the court was told.
If you have been affected by any of the issues raised in this article, you can call the national 24-hour Rape Crisis Helpline at 1800-77 8888, access text service and webchat options at drcc.ie/services/helpline/ or visit Rape Crisis Help. In the case of an emergency, always dial 999/112.
