A convicted sex offender who told a seven-year-old girl at her Co Kerry home he would kill her with a knife if she told anyone he had abused her has been jailed for seven years.
Judge Patrick McCartan said the “appalling abuse” had catastrophic circumstances on the girl. He commended her courage in reporting it to her mother.
The man, who is related to the victim, went on the run for four years after failing to appear for his sentence hearing in 2007.
Dublin Circuit Criminal Court heard that the girl attended psychotherapy for two years after the abuse was disclosed. She had an eating disorder for a number of years because, according to her therapist, eating was the way she controlled her life.
The 33-year-old man pleaded guilty to four counts of sexual assault between December 12th, 2003, and March 8th, 2004. He was registered as a sex offender.
