Courts / Wexford / Report
17 years for cold 'campaign of rape' against stepdaughter
Summary
Alec Goucher, aged 70, was convicted by a Central Criminal Court jury of 25 counts of sexual abuse against his stepdaughter Elizabeth Usher between 2000 and 2007. The abuse began when Usher was about 11 and escalated to regular rapes twice a week when she was 15 or 16. Goucher denied the allegations and claimed she persuaded him to act. He was found to have no remorse and had attempted to collapse his trial after setting his home on fire. The judge, Ms Justice Karen O'Connor, rejected a suggestion that he might be suitable for a non‑custodial sentence and imposed a 17‑year custodial term, back‑dated to the start of his custody. Usher's victim impact statement described the abuse as a campaign of rape that eroded her sense of self and her relationship with her father. The sentence was handed down in February after delays caused by a psychiatric report.
Who, what, where, when and why
What: Report matter: 17 years for cold 'campaign of rape' against stepdaughter. Procedural stage: sentence. Findings: Found guilty
When:
- 2000 and 2007 Incident
- 2025-11-03 Publication
Case subjects
Applicant
Finding: Found guilty
Outcome: Found guilty; Responding to a section of the psychiatric report which suggested Goucher might be suitable for a non-custodial sentence, Ms Justice Karen O'Connor said there was no question of this. After the sentence was handed down, Goucher called out: "I did not do anything", to which the judge responded: "This man has taken enough of our time and I am not engaging."; However, the finalisation of the case was delayed for some months due to delays in preparing a defence psychiatric report.
Places mentioned
- Central Criminal Court
- Lower George's Street
- Wexford
Topics
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