Man jailed for assaulting niece... 36 years on

A MAN who indecently assaulted his 11-year- old niece when he was 17 in the Seventies has been jailed for one year.

Some 36 years after the abuse, the 46year-old woman read a victim impact statement in court yesterday in which she said she attempted suicide several times.

She said: ‘I was told that my parents would not believe me and would believe him because he was an adult. I would spend night after night sitting on the kitchen floor crying.’ The woman said her parents never doubted her when she told them about the abuse but that she and her family were still very badly affected by it. She also told the court that she’s still receiving counselling.

The 54-year-old man – who pleaded guilty to four counts of indecently assaulting the girl between January 1 and December 31, 1977 – read a letter of apology to the woman in court, saying: ‘I feel so much guilt and shame for the hurt I have caused you.’ Garda

BRENDA POWER IS AWAY Maureen Munnelly told Martina Baxter BL, prosecuting, that the abuse happened when he was 17 and she was 11, and that it happened at her grandparents’ house. She said the abuse stopped when the man got married.

Bernard Condon SC, defending, told the court a report before the court placed his client at a low risk of re-offending.

Judge Patricia Ryan handed down a twoyear sentence, suspending the final year, at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court.