An man in his seventies have been jail for sexually abusing his granddaughter when the little girl was between the ages of 5 and 9 years.
The accused, who pleaded guilty to sexually assaulting the girl on approximately 25 occasions appeared at the Central Criminal Court before Judge Martin Nolan this afternoon.
Judge Nolan described the offending as “a somewhat distressing case” noting that the abuse took place when the child was left in the care of her grandfather.
The court noted that during these visits the accused would have the child sit on his lap and that he would assault her by touching her “private area”.
The abuse came to light when the victim told her father what had been happening causing “events to take their course”.
The accused, having fled to Spain, was extradited back to Ireland to face justice, where he was granted High Court bail.
Considering an appropriate sentence, Judge Nolan commented, “Touching is, I suppose a modest form of sexual abuse,” and that the aggravating factors of the case were the age of the child, the repeat offending, and the “position of trust” that had been taken advantage of.
Counsel for the Director of Public Prosecutions advised that the maximum sentence for the offending is a term of 14 years.
The court took into account the mitigating factors of the man’s age, his guilty pleas, his expressions of remorse and his lack of a criminal record.
A victim impact report was also made available to the court, which Judge Nolan said was “very realistic” and outlined the “hurt and trauma” caused by the abuse.
The court also noted the“huge difficulties and trauma for his [the accused’s] son and his extended family”, that were caused.
Judge Nolan set a global headline sentence of 8 years before reducing this to a term of 4 years with the relevant mitigation taken into consideration.
Monies brought to the court as a token of remorse were directed by the victim to be given to the Rape Crisis Centre.
“You should be ashamed of yourself”, he told he accused, adding, that’s a matter for yourself.”
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