A 43-year-old man has been jailed for 18 months after he admitted to beating his 16-year-old stepdaughter, making her take cold showers and locking her in her room when she was upset.
The man pleaded guilty at Cork Circuit Criminal Court to child cruelty to the teenager on various dates between 2013 and 2017.
The offence contradicts Section 246 (1) of the Children’s Act 2001. The man cannot be named to protect the identity of the victim.
The man pleaded guilty to a single offence. However, in her victim impact statement, the young woman said that she had endured a horrific existence whilst living with him.
She said the man moved in with her mother when she was three and only left two years ago. From the time he arrived, she was "physically slapped and screamed at by the accused."
"I remember being showered in cold water in the middle of the night and sometimes being showered with my clothes on."
The teenager said when she was very young she had "meltdowns" as she was very upset at the atmosphere in her home. She told Judge Colin Daly that during those episodes she was "slapped and roared at" by her stepfather.
"I was locked into my room with a nylon tied to the door and the bannister to keep there for hours. My dinner would be dropped up and I would be locked up again,” she said.
The young girl said that she was treated differently to her siblings who were the biological children of her stepfather. She frequently was excluded from family life but felt unable to convey her feelings to social workers who visited the family home.
"(My stepfather) always put on a good show for them. I felt neglected, lost and worthless at times. My childhood was a tough time for me, it has left me with a lot of issues which I am trying to deal with to this day."
Coming forward
The girl said she was relieved not to give evidence at a trial. She hopes that coming forward will help others in her position "and even protect others from this cruelty."
" I hope to forgive one day, but now I do not, and I cannot. I would like to receive a genuine apology for the hardship and cruelty he has caused me."
Meanwhile, Det Garda Craig Peterson of the Cork City Divisional Protective Services Unit told the court that when he arrested the man he acknowledged that he had slapped and screamed at the girl and forced her to have cold showers.
Det Garda Peterson said the man no longer resides in the family home.
Defence counsel, Jane Hyland SC made an appeal for leniency in the case. She said that her client, who has no previous convictions, had apologised to the girl prior to moving out of the family home.
Ms Hyland said that the offence was grave. She insisted that she wasn't seeking to minimise the actions of her client.
“He did not manage to deal with the situation as she should have … he did apologise before he left the family home, but I am instructed to apologise again for his treatment of his stepdaughter when she was a small vulnerable child,” she said.
Judge Daly said that the man had subjected his stepdaughter, who has ADHD, to extremely cruel treatment over a long period of time. Taking the guilty plea into consideration and a probation report which indicated that he was at low risk of re offending he jailed the man for 18 months.
Story by Olivia Kelleher
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