Man behind bars for sexual abuse against his own kids

Man behind bars for sexual abuse against his own kids

17 June 2015

A LECALE pensioner has spent his first week behind bars for a catalogue of physical and sexual abuse against his children.

The elderly man abused his sons and daughters over three decades before his crimes were exposed by a grown up daughter who complained to police in 2013 of terrifying sexual advances he made towards her when she cared for him.

The defendant, who is considered to pose a serious risk to others and to be of high risk of reoffending, was remanded in custody on Thursday after details of the abuse were unveiled in court. Judge Piers Grant said there was no question of bail arising from the case and warned the defendant that his sentence, due to be imposed tomorrow, will include a significant custodial element.

The pensioner cannot be named to protect the identify of his victims.

Listening intently through a specialist headset as evidence of his gross indecency, indecent assault and cruelty against eight family members was given at Downpatrick Crown Court, the elderly widower, dressed in a blue shirt and tie and corduroy blazer, shook his head occasionally in reaction to the details.

The court heard how the scale of his abuse, the bulk of which happened between the 1960s and 1980s, finally began to emerge when his daughter confided in family about crude sexual advances he made towards her when she took him shopping in Downpatrick in February 2013.

The woman told police she had often taken her father shopping and cooked for him in his home following the death of her mother.

Despite considering herself a “favourite” child in her father’s eyes, she admitted she “tiptoed” around him because of his violence against her and her siblings. She said she was also aware he talked explicitly about sex to his daughters.

But on the shopping trip in 2013, she said he suddenly propositioned her, offering a bottle of vodka in exchange for sex, complaining he had been abstinent for five years.

When she protested and reminded him that she was his daughter, he continued to pester her for a “court” and insisted this was normal behaviour between fathers and children that was heavily documented in the news and Bible.

She said her father reassured her that he would not force her when he saw her terror and pleaded with her not to be cross with him or tell anyone.

However, when they returned to his house, she said he pulled her towards him and kissed her on the lips.

Following several days of limited contact, the woman said her father apologised and asked her to return to his home to tend to him. However, she said he became “tetchy” a few days later, which she feared was because she had turned him down.

When he began to speak again of his attraction to her, she finally disclosed his behaviour to her siblings, prompting her father to send her a solicitor’s letter demanding that she stop making such allegations.

However, by this time her disclosures had prompted other siblings to tell their own stories of abuse.

A prosecutor told the court this was a difficult time for the family, which was exacerbated by their guilt at not having stood by another sister who had previously made allegations about their father but who had been branded a “whore and alcoholic” by him. 

The court heard that this sister had been “harmed significantly” by the abuse and was repeatedly indecently assaulted by him between the ages of nine and 11 when he would subject her to a ritual of intimate washing.

Her father also plied her with vodka before committing acts of gross indecency and subjecting her to “gross and offensive language.”

“He punched and kicked, wherever his boot met you,” she told police.

Another sister, who suffers post-traumatic stress as a result of her difficult childhood, recalled being punched to the ground when she was about six.

She also recalled her father organising twisted games in which he made the children curse before hitting them and forcing them to fight each other until one cried, prompting him to triumphantly lift the winner’s arm in the air.

Another sibling recalled being constantly hit by her father with a closed fist for dancing, being beaten unconscious on one occasion and being kicked between the legs by him so hard that that she wet herself.

She said she was so fearful of her father that she began to hate him. She also remembered that he strategically placed mirrors in the bathroom to spy on his daughters and used “filthy language” and sexualised chat with them.

Another sister remembered being “kissed and groped” and being hit of her feet into an open fire when she was six, while another victim recalled one open-mouthed kiss by her father when she was being comforted by him.

His victims also said their father commented on their physical development during puberty, touching their breasts and saying they were “developing nicely.”

A brother was also subject to repeated violence, some of which was recalled by his siblings who said they had found his beatings particularly upsetting because he never cried regardless of their severity.

Emphasising the scale of abuse, a prosecutor told the court the defendant’s “sexual perversions had not waned” over the years as was evident by the most recent 2013 incident.

However, defence barrister Conor O’Kane disagreed that the defendant was dangerous and said the single kiss of 2013 was a lone incident that had followed a 27-year gap in abuse.

“This case has been heavily publicised and no other victims have come forward. There is no suggestion he has ever committed any other offence,” said Mr O’Kane.

“This man has no contact with his children or grandchildren. He is not dangerous.

“It is predominantly a cruelty case rather than sexual offences case.”

The defendant is due to be sentenced tomorrow for 13 charges with a remaining 36 counts to be left on the books.