Man who raped and assaulted his wife for '25 years of hell' handed life sentence

A man who raped and assaulted his wife, subjecting her to “25 years of hell”, has been jailed for life.

Ms Justice Melanie Greally said the woman had endured an “unending nightmare” and that the court recognised the vast damage that her husband “wilfully and sadistically” caused to her.

The 67-year-old Carlow man had pleaded guilty at the Central Criminal Court to 12 sample counts including nine of rape, two of sexual assault and one of assault causing harm.

All of the offending took place at the family home on dates between 1991 and 2015. He can't be named to protect the victim's anonymity. 

In an impact statement read to the court during a previous hearing by prosecuting senior counsel Paul Murray, the woman, addressing the accused, said: “When I walked down the aisle to marry you, I thought I was walking to meet my partner, the one I could count on, someone to share a family with, go through good and bad times with. I didn’t get that man.

“I met a monster, one who would destroy our dreams beyond repair.”

She said the man put her through “25 years of hell” and said she often thought about letting herself die so the pain would end, but she knew she couldn't die and leave their children with him.

“We escaped you and I feel lucky we did. My only regret is that we didn’t do it sooner”.

An investigating garda told the court that the man began to rape the victim in the early stages of their marriage, with the sexual abuse occurring regularly. 

The victim said the man would rape her as a form of blackmail including for money to feed their children.

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She said the man had a habit of leaving the house and coming back in the middle of the night. He would then wait at the bottom of the bed like an intruder until she woke up, then he would rape her.

She also outlined occasions when the man would break into the house, then rape her.

The court heard the rapes were most frequent during the early years of their marriage. The victim told gardaí that the man became more excited the more she struggled and when she showed signs of injury or distress. 

The abuse also included oral rape, attempted rape and sexual assaults.

The final rape took place in 2012 and the last sexual assault in 2015. 

The man was arrested in December 2018 and denied the allegations. He has three previous convictions, including for sexual offending dating back to the 1970s.

There was also a frequent pattern of physical violence in the marriage. Gardaí obtained the woman’s medical records as part of their investigation, which showed a number of incidents of cuts and injuries to her fingers.

She lost a tooth in 2004, which her daughters told gardaí was caused by a blow to her face. The woman's daughters recalled constant violence, including their mother being kicked in the stomach and her fingers being bent until they snapped.

One of the woman’s daughters told gardaí that from an early age, she couldn’t “remember anything but domestic violence” and recalled one occasion where she saw her mother crawling from a bedroom to the bathroom, bleeding.

Another daughter gave a statement saying that she once told a friend: “Back in a minute, Daddy is strangling Mammy against the hot press.”

He had been due to stand trial in relation to a total of 52 counts including rape, sexual assault and assault causing harm earlier this year, but the guilty pleas to 12 counts were accepted by the Director of Public Prosecutions on a full facts basis, with the remaining charges to be taken in consideration.

Ms Justice Greally noted the mitigation and the man's personal circumstances. She said the guilty plea came at a late stage, weeks before the trial had been due to start and that up until this point, the victim had faced the prospect of giving evidence.

Imposing the life sentence, the judge said the court was “satisfied that the prolonged and brutal nature of the offending was so extreme and exceptional that the mitigation is not sufficient to merit any reduction of sentence”.