Former school caretaker jailed for sexual assault of daughter

This report is a localnews.ie summary based on public court reporting and records; sources are listed below.

A 77-year-old former school caretaker was jailed for eight-and-a-half years at the Central Criminal Court for sexually assaulting his daughter. The proceedings were reported on 24 October 2023. He cannot be named to protect his daughter’s anonymity.

He pleaded guilty to four counts of sexual assault. The offences took place on dates between 1991 and 1997, when his daughter was aged six to 13. The court heard the charges were sample counts from the period of offending.

The man had worked for 30 years as a caretaker at his local primary school. The court heard he had no previous convictions.

Ms Justice Melanie Greally set a 14-year headline sentence, then reduced it to eight-and-a-half years after considering mitigating factors including his guilty plea, remorse, advanced years and medical issues. She described the abuse as “the ultimate betrayal of trust”.

In a victim impact statement read at an earlier sentence hearing, the woman said she went to gardaí in 2021. She said the abuse had irrevocably damaged her relationship with her mother.