Derry Crown Court: Man (58) jailed for 'sustained campaign of sexual assault' on his niece

A woman who was sexually abused by her uncle forty years ago, when she was aged under eleven years, bathed herself in detol and took other disinfectant baths "because her body felt dirty" after the abuse.

The disclosure was made at the Crown Court in Coleraine today when the woman's uncle, 58, was jailed for five years and placed on the Sex Offender's Register for life, or until further order.

The abuser, who cannot be named in order to protect the identity of his then child victim, pleaded guilty to ten charges of indecently assaulting his niece in her family home on various dates between September 1983 and April 1986, starting when the girl was aged seven.

In her Victim Impact Statement (V.I.S.) submitted to Judge Neil Rafferty K.C. prior to the sentencing hearing, the victim, now aged in her forties, wrote that during the abuse she felt dirty, shame and guilt. When she reported it to other children at the time she was bullied by them. She also bathed in detol and other disinfectant baths.

She wrote that she reported the abuse to the then R.U.C. when she was aged eleven years but after disclosing the abuse to the police she was taken from her family home and placed in a children's home.

"This meant her feeling she was the one being punished", said Judge Rafferty.

"Tragically this happened to be something of the case", he added.

Judge Rafferty said after thirty years of not being believed, the victim decided to report the matter to the police again.

"This time after reporting it to the police I felt for the first time someone believed me and that I would get justice for him ruining my life", she wrote in her V.I.S.

Judge Rafferty said "I wish it to be conveyed to her that I do not underestimate  the courage and bravery that it took to make this second report to the police when initially she was not believed. I can only apologise and express my disappointment that her earlier experience in reporting this was a negative one. It is not the way we do things now".

He also described as "pitiful" the maximum sentence of two years which was in place at the time of the child's abuse forty years ago.

"There has been a significant sea change in the way we deal with these cases now", he added.

Jailing the abuser for five years, Judge Rafferty told him he'd admitted to engaging in a "sustained campaign of sexual assault" during which he used both threats and rewards and that he'd also violated his victim in her family home.

After his prison release, the abuser will also be on probation for a two year period and Judge Rafferty also made a five year Restraining Order banning the defendant from any contact with his victim.