A father described as a 'monster' by his own daughter has been sentenced to more than a decade in prison after his child bravely testified about years of horrific physical and sexual abuse.
Years of systematic abuse
The 51-year-old man, from Offaly in Ireland, was found guilty of five counts of rape and oral rape that occurred between 2012 and 2020. The abuse began when his daughter was just five years old, shortly after her parents separated, and continued during weekend visits to her father's home.
The Central Criminal Court heard harrowing details of the first assault, where the father told his young daughter she was 'just like her mother' before subjecting her to both oral and vaginal rape. The court was told the abuse was consistently violent, with the man repeatedly slapping his daughter during the attacks.
A childhood stolen by terror
The now 19-year-old victim described how the abuse occurred approximately eight or nine times, often in sheds at her father's property. Her younger sister corroborated this account, having witnessed one of the assaults.
The victim's suffering was so profound that she contemplated suicide at just seven years old. In a powerful victim impact statement read to the court, she explained she kept the abuse secret to protect her family, particularly her younger sister, after her father threatened to 'do it to her sister and kill [the girl] and her family' if she told anyone.
'I was protecting my sister from being abused, my mam from being hurt,' she said. 'My family was all I cared about.'
Justice served after years of silence
The abuse only came to light when the teenager confided in a friend and eventually told her mother. The man wasn't arrested until 2023, and throughout the proceedings, he maintained his innocence, claiming nothing had happened. His partner and other family members testified on his behalf.
On Friday, November 7, 2025, Mr Justice Paul McDermott sentenced the father to 12 years in prison. Upon his release, he will be under the supervision of Ireland's Probation Service for three years and is prohibited from contacting his daughters or their mother.
Despite the trauma, the victim concluded her statement with remarkable resilience: 'I know I am a kind and loving person despite what my father did to me and that's something he will never take from me.'
