Fiona Ferguson and Sonya McLean
A man who raped and sexually assaulted his youngest sister has been jailed for six years.
Paul Mohan (42) of Grangegeeth, Collon, Co Meath and formerly of Westcourt, Drogehda, Co Louth, pleaded guilty to 10 counts of raping his youngest sister on dates between 1996 and 2001. He also pleaded guilty to the sexual assault of his sister, including one incident in 2004.
He worked previously as a photographer and has no previous convictions.
His sister, who waived her anonymity to allow her brother to be named, told the court how she had believed the abuse was normal as a child, but as she became older realised it was wrong.
She described how her mental health suffered and how she had lost much of her childhood. She said she felt damaged, dirty and worthless and struggled to tell her husband what had happened.
She described the distress of keeping the secret from her family and said telling her parents was the hardest thing she ever had to do. She said her family have been supportive and she can finally talk about what happened, now taking one day at a time and no longer carrying the pain, fear, sadness and shame that had weighed her down for the best part of 30 years.
'Dreadful breach of family trust'
Sentencing Mohan on Tuesday, Mr Justice Paul McDermott described the woman’s victim impact statement as “moving” in which she outlined how she has suffered life-long consequences due to the abuse.
He noted that as Mohan acted as her wedding photographer, the day was “totally ruined” for the woman.
The judge said the woman was concerned about how the revelation of the abuse would affect her parents and described in her statement how the abuse impacted on her own relationship with her husband and children.
Mr Justice McDermott accepted that Mohan expressed horror on learning of how the abuse affected his sister.
“He ought to have been protective of his younger sister,” Mr Justice McDermott said before he added that the abuse occurred “somewhere she ought to have felt protected”.
The judge said that as Mohan had abused his sister at a time when she was effectively in his care, the offending represented “a dreadful breach of family trust”.
“The offences dominated her life then and beyond. They were repeated over many years and involved many different types of sexual abuse,” Mr Justice McDermott said before he added that many of the offences were “humiliating and degrading”.
He said the victim had “a right to bodily integrity and human dignity” and that she had been “clearly living in fear”. He added that the offending had been repeated over a number of years and were committed “on a vulnerable and defenceless child”.
Headline sentence
Mr Justice McDermott said if the offending had been committed when Mohan was an adult the headline sentence would be 14 years, but said considering his age at the time, a headline sentence of 10 years was more appropriate.
He took mitigating factors, including his lack of previous convictions, expression of remorse and plea of guilty into account, before he imposed a sentence of seven and half years for the rape offences.
He imposed consecutive sentences totalling five years for the sexual assault offences, but ordered that those sentences would run concurrent with the seven and half year term.
Mr Justice McDermott suspended the final 18 months of the sentence on strict conditions, including that Mohan engage with the Probation Service for three years upon his release and undertake any programme the service deems appropriate.
He is not to contact the complainant, nor her husband or children, in any way and is not allowed unsupervised access to children.
The judge said a post-release supervision order was not necessary as Mohan would be under the supervision of the Probation Service for three years once released from prison.
Abuse beginning
At a sentence hearing last month the investigating garda told Philip Rahn SC, prosecuting, that the abuse began in 1990. The victim was about six at this time and her brother was six years older than her.
She said she was sexually assaulted a couple of times a week and kept a journal where she marked days where things happened. She estimated that she was abused hundreds of times.
The court heard the rapes occurred when she was aged approximately between 11 and 15 years old, and the accused man was aged between 16 and 22 years old. A final incident of sexual assault occurred in 2004 when they were adults.
She made a statement of complaint to the gardaí in 2019.When gardaí made contact with Mohan he said that he had always known that he would be contacted by the gardaí. He made some admissions in relation to the sexual assaults but did not think there had been sexual intercourse.
However, he said if his sister said it happened, he would believe her and told gardaí he was sorry.
The garda agreed with Bernard Condon SC, defending, that Mohan co-operated with the investigation, expressed sorrow and appeared to be remorseful.
Mr Condon read from a letter from Mohan apologising for the harm he had done and hoping his sister can move on. He acknowledged he had taken advantage of his sister when he should have been looking after her. He also apologised to his family.
He said the court had to take into account this had commenced when Mohan was 12 years old and may have had difficulty understanding right from wrong but now, he was before the court as an adult.
He said it was unusual that he had taken a wrong turn so early in life but the court had the difficult task of assessing his level of maturity as he developed from a young child to an adult.
Counsel said that as a result of the disclosures Mohan’s employment has ended and he has become socially isolated. He said Mohan described himself as a functioning alcoholic but has and continues to work on himself. He said he was of previous good character.
Mr Condon said Mohan was prepared to undergo supervision and take part in the Safer Lives program. He was prepared to address his moderate risk of reoffending.
If you have been affected by any of the issues raised in this article, you can call the national 24-hour Rape Crisis Helpline at 1800 77 8888, access text service and webchat options at drcc.ie/services/helpline/, or visit Rape Crisis Help.
In the case of an emergency, always dial 999/112.
