A 75-year-old man has been jailed for twenty years for the repeated abuse of his younger sister and seven daughters from 1977 to 2000.
James O’Reilly of Killeens, Ballynonty, Thurles, Co. Tipperary can be identified because his victims waived their right to anonymity.
Over the course of his five-week trial last year, the court heard James O’Reilly was 34 when he raped his first victim – his 13-year-old sister. Over the next three years, he regularly attacked her in a van.
His next victim was his daughter. She was no more than 6 years old when he first attacked her while her mother was in hospital having suffered a miscarriage.
The details of the abuse inflicted on his eight victims were harrowing.
The attacks took place in various locations – in a van, sheds, fields or at the bog.
He threatened to put one of the girls into foster care if she told anyone.
One of his other daughters gave evidence of being raped, starved and beaten all her life.
Another, who was 10 years old when she was first abused in 1981, said he raped her “hundreds, if not thousands of times.’
Judge Tony Hunt considered handing down the maximum life sentence, but given O’Reilly’s poor health, he decided on a 20-year jail term – potentially amounting to a life sentence given his age.
