Man jailed for three years

A man who had a sexual relationship with his 14-year-old step-daughter after he told her he was not her real father was jailed yesterday for 3 years.

A court heard how the teenager had grown up believing the 28-year-old man was her natural father.

But she stared having sex with him nearly every day after he told her the truth.

And she said he sulked any day she refused him sex.

The man now 45 pleaded guilty at Dublin Circuit Court to three charges of sexually assaulting the girl in Dublin between October 10, 1991 and April 9,1992.

Judge Frank O’Donnell described the woman now 31 as a very brave and very good person who unfortunately blamed herself for her stepfather’s behaviour.

He said her victim impact report made “very sad reading” She had loved and trusted the man, he said.

But he had broken that trust “destroying the heart of her innocence”.

Judge O’Donnell told the man that the girl had been entitled as a young teenager to depend on “someone like you”, and that it seemed there must have been some sort of bond of affection.

He noted that the man had believed that the relationship was consensual.

But he said it could not have been consensual because a girl of her age could not have fully understood what was happening.

Garda Martin Flood told prosecutor Mary Rose Geraty that the man had had previous convictions for road traffic offense, but had not come to Garda attention since offences against his stepdaughter came to light.

He had four children, but his marriage had since broken down, he told the court.

Garda Flood agreed with defence counsel Conor Devally that the man had not used any violence against the girl.

Mr Devally accepted that a probation report had concluded the man had not shown much insight into the consequences of his actions.

By Debbie Chavese, The Star Newspaper

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