A MAN from Galway has been sentenced to seven-and-a-half years in prison for raping his three young foster sisters over 10 years ago.
The Irish Independent reports that the three girls, who were fostered by the accused’s parents, were aged between six and 10 years old at the time.
The accused, now 29, was aged between 14 and 18.
The first victim, who had been fostered by the family from the age of six months, was raped on a weekly basis, with many of the assaults taking place in a hut on the family’s land.
The court heard that on one occasion, he raped two of the girls at the same time in the hut.
The second girl reported the incident to gardaí two years later in 2007, when she was 11, but the case wasn’t prosecuted as the first girl denied it happened.
However the first girl later reported the incidences of rape to a teacher in 2011.
When the third girl was interviewed as a witness for that investigation, she revealed she had also been raped.
She told gardaí that when she was eight years old, the accused made her put on his mother's underwear before raping her in his parents' room.
The Irish Independent adds that the man was convicted last year at the Central Criminal Court of 19 charges of rape and one each of sexual assault and buggery against the first girl on dates between October 2003 and May 2007.
He was also found guilty on one charge of raping each of the other two girls over the same period.
Mr Justice Michael Moriarty sentenced the man to seven-and-a-half years for the rape charges and concurrent terms of six-and-a-half and five years for the remaining charges.
He suspended the final year on strict conditions.
