Dad found guilty of repeatedly raping son (Ireland)

UNNAMED DAD has been found guility of systematic sexual abuse of his son over a period of 3 years.

http://breakingnews.iol.ie/news/ireland/father-found-guilty-of-repeatedly-raping-son-446258.html

Father found guilty of repeatedly raping son
15/02/2010 - 13:34:46

A 52-year-old man has been found guilty at the Central Criminal Court of the systematic sexual abuse of his son over a period of three years.

The man, who cannot be named to protect the identity of his victim, has been found guilty by a jury of 11 charges of anal rape; 12 charges of oral rape; 24 charges of sexual assault of the boy on dates between April 11, 2001 and June 23, 2004.

The offences occurred while the child was aged between 12 and 15 years old.

It was day nine of the trial and the jury had been deliberating for four hours and 24 minutes.

A charge of the wilful neglect or ill treatment of the child was earlier withdrawn by the trial judge.

Mr Justice Barry White thanked the jury of seven men and five women and excused them from jury service for life.

Mr Justice White said this was a particularly distasteful case and noted that while judges and lawyers can become case hardened the general public may only come across a case like this once in a lifetime.

Mr Justice White remanded the man in custody and listed the case for mention tomorrow morning when a sentence date will be set after the defence said they wished to consider their position in relation to reports.

The now 20-year-old complainant told Ms Aileen Donnelly SC, prosecuting, that his father sexually abused him for the first time in the room he shared with his brothers when he was 12 or 13 years old.

He said his father pulled down his night clothes and rubbed his penis for a few minutes before leaving the room. He said he was told not to tell anyone and the abuse continued "a couple of times a week."

The man said his father would also come into his room and ask him to suck his penis or his father would pull down his clothes and suck the child’s penis. He said his father either woke him up or he would be already awake because he was afraid.

He said that sometime after he started secondary school his father came into his room and asked him to turn over on his stomach. He said his father pulled down his clothes and anally raped him.
He told Ms Donnelley: "It was wrong, he was my father like," when she asked him what his attitude to the abuse was. He said he was told not to say anything to anyone.

He said he would be abused three or four times a week and often told his father to stop but he would hit him.

He said he left home in 2004 but the following year asked his father to meet up with him. He told Ms Donnelly "it was not all bad" and said "I was hoping he would apologise, I was hoping he was sorry."

He told Ms Donnelly: "Even though he did all those things he was still my father."

He told defence counsel, Mr David Goldberg SC, "yes, now I do," when asked if he really hated his father.

Mr Goldberg asked the man how his situation could have been worse if he had made a complaint at the time about the abuse he was allegedly suffering. He replied: "I could be sent home and he would know I had complained."

Dr Peter Keenan, consultant paediatrician at Temple Street Hospital, told the jury that there would not necessarily be visible signs of damage or residual scarring after repeated penetrative assaults.

He told Mr Goldberg during cross examination there would not necessarily be signs of injury in person who had been anally raped 300 times either at the time or in the long term.

Dr Keenan agreed with Mr Justice White that the absence of anal damage was "a neutral finding".

During defence evidence the accused denied the allegations. He told Mr Goldberg: "I never sexually abused my son, never."

He told Ms Flynn during cross examination that his son may have made the allegations as "revenge" and recalled his son telling him "his head was all over the place."

"What I am being accused of you would not do to an animal", the man said.

The accused told Ms Flynn: "If someone was doing that to me I would get as far away as possible." When asked where a child would go to get help he replied: "Anywhere, I would get help as soon as possible."

He said: "If something like that is going on you know it's wrong no matter what age you are."

Ms Flynn asked him if he accepted it was difficult for his son to make the allegations. He said: "It was not difficult for him, he had no problem."

When asked if it appeared to him his son found it easy to give his evidence in court, he replied: "He seemed to get through it easily, lying his way through it."

Ms Flynn asked him if he thought it was easy for his son to tell lies, he replied: "Seems to be, everything he said was a lie."