Grandfather who raped 41-year-old niece jailed

A GRANDFATHER who raped his 41-year-old niece as she slept in her own home on Christmas night in 2014 has been jailed for five-and-a-half years.

The 62-year-old Dublin man, who cannot be named in order to protect his victim’s identity, later claimed to have taken a lie-detector test about the incident and claimed that the sex was consensual.

After a four-day trial at the Central Criminal Court last month a jury convicted him of raping the woman. He had pleaded not guilty to the offence.

At a sentence hearing last week the court heard the woman only reported the case to gardaí three months after the offence when she discovered her uncle had circulated a letter to his family with a lie-detector test attached.

Her uncle had claimed that the woman had participated in consensual oral sex, which led to sexual intercourse.

Mr Justice Tony Hunt said it was an “astonishing” feature of the case that the victim was “prepared to leave it lying, and he went out looking for trouble”.

Yesterday, Mr Justice Hunt noted the “profound effect” the offence had had on the victim.

He said the family had been happy and close and this had been “shattered irreparably”.

Mr Justice Hunt took into account in mitigation that the accused man had been of very good character previously, was going into custody for the first time at a relatively advanced age and that he had medical issues.

Mr Justice Hunt imposed a five-and-a-half-year sentence, noting the case was “a terrible tragedy for all concerned”.

The man co-operated with gardaí but maintained his version of events, which was rejected by the jury.

The woman, who was not present in court, wrote a victim impact statement which was read out on her behalf.

She said she was attending counselling to help her deal with the trauma she had endured.

She added that she didn’t think she would ever understand why this “horrible crime” had happened to her.

She said she did not think she would ever be able to be in a relationship again and that her own and her children’s lives had been changed forever.

“People used to describe me as positive, happy-go-lucky and confident, but I’m the opposite of that now,” she said.

She added that the trauma had totally destroyed her parents and that their health had deteriorated.