A West of Ireland man will be be sentenced today (Friday ) at Castlebar Circuit Court for a litany of sexual and physical abuse of his daughters stretching over a period from 1991 to just two years ago, when the man was first arrested.
The case details one of the worst instances of family sexual abuse ever heard in the region and initially involved almost 300 charges of sexual assault, physical assault, neglect and abandonment.
Yesterday, the Central Criminal Court in Castlebar heard victim impact statements in the trial of a 50-year-old man who has pleaded guilty to the rape of four of his daughters.
The horrific details of violent rape and physical torture in relation to three of the girls were outlined to the court before Mr Justice Paul Carney.
The court heard how the accused carried out a litany of rape and violent assault over an 18-year period between 1991 and 2009.
In three victim impact statements read out to court by a garda, each of the daughters of the accused said their lives had been ruined by their father.
They described him as 'an evil bastard' and 'a monster' who threatened to have them dead and buried if they told anyone what was happening.
The court heard how the girls were regularly raped and forced to perform sexual acts on their father. They described the pain as unbearable and were left bleeding afterwards.
The grotesque nature of the physical torture they were subjected to was also outlined in court.
On one occasion, one of the girls was stabbed in the arm by her father. He then helped stitch the wound with an ordinary needle and thread without anaesthetic.
The girls recounted being tied to trees and horses and whipped to the point of unconsciousness.
The beatings were always severe, they said, regardless of whether their father was drunk or sober.
They recounted incidents of being beaten on the head with hammers and having vice grips attached to their ears, lips and nose for up to an hour at a time.
They said they had no education, their lives were destroyed and their family broken up.
Counsel for the defence appealed for leniency on the part of the accused and said the plea of guilty should be seen as a mitigating factor even though it was tendered only yesterday.
The man, who cannot be named for legal reasons, also pleaded guilty to charges of assault, neglect and abandonment of his daughters in a manner likely to cause them unnecessary suffering.
Last week, he had pleaded not guilty to each of the 271 charges as they were read out to him. But subsequently he entered a plea of guilty to 14 sample charges.
He pleaded guilty to twice raping two of his daughters, one of them four times and the fourth on a single occasion.
Sentencing is expected to take place today.
