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A 52-year-old man who raped and abused a five-year-old girl and her three-and-a-half-year-old brother has been sentenced to 19 years in jail.
Their mother, who also abused the children and facilitated her partner in abusing them, was jailed for fourteen years.
Following their trial, the man was found guilty of raping the then 5-year-old girl and her 3-and-half-year-old brother.
He was also convicted on charges of sexual assault and false imprisonment.
His partner, the children’s mother, who’s 40, was found guilty of rape, sexual exploitation, sexual assault, reckless endangerment and false imprisonment.
Because the pair continue to deny their involvement and had shown no remorse or apology or embarked on any rehabilitation there were very few mitigating factors and there was no reason to suspend any part of the sentences, the judge said.
The abuse took place at two locations in the west of the country on dates between October 2012 and September 2014.
The false imprisonment charge arose from the girl being tied to a chair while they went to the pub. The boy later told his foster parents they had saved his life.
In interviews with specialist gardaí the girl told how she had been raped by her mother’s partner and sexually abused by her mother. She told how she was asked by her mother to engage in sexual activity with her and her partner. Asked how often this activity occurred she said “all the time“.
When arrested the girl’s mother denied the offences and said her daughter was making up the abuse because she had been put into care. She also blamed the children’s biological father and said she had once reported it to gardaí and taken her daughter to their doctor amid concerns.
However, the court was told there was no record of any garda report and the family’s doctor said no such issue had been brought to his attention.
Mr Justice David Keane said their home should have been a place of safety for the children, but was instead a place of pain, fear and mistreatment.
He jailed the man for nineteen years and handed down a 14-year prison sentence to the woman.
