Daughter of garda charged with rape and child cruelty said home had 'atmosphere of violence and threats'

Sonya McLean

The eldest daughter of a garda charged with rape and child cruelty has said the family home had ‘an atmosphere of violence and threats” and it felt like living in a military barracks growing up.

The now 24-year-old was giving evidence in the trial of her father, who has pleaded not guilty to two counts of child cruelty against her on unknown dates between 2007 and 2024.

He has also denied a charge of assault causing her harm on an unknown date in late 2021 to early 2022, after she had turned 18.

The man is the woman's step-father, rather than her biological father, but he has been her step-father all her life, and she referred to him as her father in evidence.

The 48-year-old man has also pleaded not guilty to two counts of raping his wife, this woman’s mother, on dates in 2009 and 2021 and to child cruelty of another, younger, daughter.

All parties in the case have a statutory right to anonymity.

When the trial opened on Tuesday, Dominic McGinn SC, prosecuting, told the jury at the Central Criminal Court sitting in Dublin that it was alleged that the accused was “a violent and domineering father and husband” who subjected two of his daughters to “unreasonable chastisement” for most of their childhood.

The alleged offending took place at two locations in the north-west of the country where the family was living at the relevant times.

The wife of the accused has described two incidents, one in 2009 and another in 2021, when she said her husband raped her. She said she had told him she didn’t want sex, but he said he didn’t care and went ahead with it.

Continuing in her direct evidence on day three of the trial, the older daughter told the jury that “the house honestly felt like you were living in a military barracks”.

She said on weekends she had to get up at 10 am, and if she didn’t, a jug of cold water would be thrown over her.

She said when she was 15, her father told her that her legs looked like the legs of a pool table and that was “a disgrace”. He began forcing her to go running daily, and the only way she could get out of it was by saying she was on her period.

She said that in November 2021, when her mother moved herself and the children out of the family home, they got a puppy. She said she became very fond of this dog but that when the family went to move back in with her father a few months later, he told her he didn’t want the dog.

Becoming upset in the witness box, she testified that her father told them that “if the dog was brought up, he’d put rat poison in his food”.

She told the jury that she decided to go to therapy with Jigsaw in June 2024. She said her first session “highlighted something and then Tusla was involved”.

She said that her therapist suggested to her to begin keeping a journal, and she did this.

“Anything that had happened that I had brushed off, I started to write about,” she said.

Under cross-examination from James McGowan SC, defending, she said she travelled with her mother and her grandmother to make their statement of complaint together.

Asked if, before making her statement, her mother asked to see the journal, the witness said no. She said she didn’t show her mother her journal and said she was certain about both these things.

Earlier, in the direct evidence, she described the home environment with her father as being “an atmosphere of violence and threats”.

She described an incident when she was 18 years old, the summer before she began college, when she was on her laptop but her father came in and told her to put it away. She was messaging her friends at the time.

She felt it was unfair as she told the jury she was an adult at this point. She said her father then confronted her about this, pushed her, and she landed on her hip, which caused her bruising.

The woman described further incidents of her father’s behaviour towards her younger sister, the second complainant in the case and her brother.

She said his behaviour towards the second complainant was more “emotional manipulation” describing him as insulting her. She said he once made her eat a bucket of KFC chicken until it made her sick and was “always onto her about her weight and her appearance”. She said this impacted her sister.

The woman described an incident where her mother was cooking, and her father came into the kitchen complaining about a picnic table having been left out.

He was shouting and pointing his finger at her mother’s chest, roaring in her face. She said she had been hoovering, and she went to intervene by hitting her father with the hoover.

She said in March 2021, there was an argument between her parents because her mother had “started to put her foot down”.

She said she had been sitting on the landing and could hear them fighting. Her brother asked her to do something about.

She said her father had her mother barricaded in a room. She forced open the door and wedged herself between the two of them so he didn’t attack her.

The trial continues before the jury of seven men and five women and Justice Sean Gillane. It is expected to run for two weeks.

If you have been affected by any of the issues raised in this article, you can call the national 24-hour Rape Crisis Helpline at 1800-77 8888, access text service and webchat options at drcc.ie/services/helpline/ or visit Rape Crisis Help. In the case of an emergency, always dial 999/112.