Rapist "institutionalised" and abused in industrial school, court hears

A man from County Mayo has been sentenced to twelve years imprisonment at the Central Criminal Court for the rape and sexual abuse of his stepdaughter over an eleven-year period. Thomas Mullarney, aged 61, of Cahir, Louisberg, pleaded guilty to sexual assaults at a Dublin residence between October 2003 and January 2005, and to rape at a Mayo address in November 2011 and September 2014. The abuse began when the victim was approximately six years old and continued into her teenage years. During sentencing, Mr Justice Michael White described the offences as falling at the upper end of serious sexual abuse, noting the victim's trust in Mullarney as a father figure and the systematic grooming involved. The judge acknowledged Mullarney's guilty plea as significant but stated that only the perpetrator bore responsibility for the harm caused. The court heard that Mullarney had experienced institutional abuse during his childhood, though the judge expressed difficulty understanding how such trauma could lead to victimising a child.