The Criminal Courts of Justice, Dublin. (stock image)(Image: Collins Courts )

A Co Galway man who raped his younger sister about 40 years ago, putting her through “torture” and telling her their mother would die if she told anyone, has been jailed for six years.

The woman, now in her late 40s, told her brother in her victim impact statement that he was “a devil, a monster, a wolf in sheep's clothing”.

“You ruined my life,” she told him.

The 59-year-old man stood trial in the Central Criminal Court on a slew of charges relating to the alleged sexual abuse of his younger sibling when she was a child and he was in his late teens.

He was found guilty by a jury of two counts – one of rape and one of indecently assaulting the girl by anally raping her in their Co Galway family home on dates between 1985 and 1986.

The jury was unable to agree on a further 21 counts and the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) will be withdrawing these charges and will not pursue a retrial, the court was told. The man continues to deny all charges against him.

He has 24 previous convictions, including public order and road traffic offences, assault, burglary and possession of drugs.

A local garda detective told prosecution counsel that the defendant raped the little girl in a box room in their home when she was aged around eight or nine years old and he was 17. He was in charge of the family at the time and sent other children out of room before committing the offence.

The little girl felt extreme pain and remembered her brother telling her that their mother would die if she told anyone.

The indecent assault occurred in a bathroom of the same home. In her evidence to the jury at trial, the woman described this incident as “torture” and said the pain was “excruciating”. She told her brother he was hurting her but he told her “shhh” and that it would be over soon.

The child was “emotionally broken” after this incident, the court heard.

The court heard that the offence was classified as indecent assault at the time of offending, although it would now be considered anal rape.

In her victim impact statement, the complainant said that when she was eight years' old, her brother “tortured, raped and abused me”. “I didn't want to live anymore,” she said.

She recalled how he repeatedly told her throughout her childhood that their mother would die if she ever told anyone about the abuse. “But mam died anyway.”

“I was so ashamed as a member of the Travelling community,” she said, adding that she feared she would “ruin our family name”.

“You took my childhood, my innocence,” she said. “After all these years, the pain is the same like it happened yesterday.”

Barry Ward SC, defending, said his client was co-operative with the investigation. He said the man should be given the benefit of the doubt in relation to whether he was 17 or 18 at the time of the offending and should be viewed by the court as a minor.

Given that the jury was unable to agree on most of the counts against the man and the DPP was not retrying him, he was right to stand trial on the charges and should not be penalised for doing so, defence counsel said.

The court heard the man has a number of health issues, suffered a number of strokes in recent years and requires mobility aids.

Sentencing him today, Ms Justice Eileen Creedon commended the woman for her “powerful” victim impact statement, which she said outlined the pain and anguish she had been put through.

She noted the DPP had placed the offending in the more serious category of a 10 to 15 year headline sentence, but also that she must treat the man as if he were a child at the time of the offending.

She noted there was little in mitigation, given the absence of guilty pleas, acknowledgement of wrong-doing or remorse. She sentenced him to seven years in prison for the rape and five years for the indecent assault, with both sentences to run concurrently.

She suspended the final year of the sentence on a number of conditions.

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Woman raped by her brother tells him he's 'a devil, a monster' as he faces justice: 'You ruined my life'