Mayo man, 69, pleads guilty to sexual assaults on his two young grand-daughters

A mother described how tears rolled down her face when she discovered her two young daughters were being abused by their grandfather.

A 69-year-old Mayo man, who cannot be named to protect the identity of his victims, pleaded guilty at Castlebar Circuit Criminal Court to sexually assaulting the girls. The grandfather was charged with 17 counts of sexual assault and pleaded guilty to eight sample charges.

Det Gda Paula Griffin told the court that the victims were aged 10 and five when they made their disclosures to their mother in December 2021. The abuse began when they were aged six and three.

The accused was the girl’s paternal grandfather and babysat them regularly. The eldest girl said the abuse would take place on every occasion that her grandfather babysat her, whether it was at his home or hers.

The accused would touch her vagina and warned her this was a “secret”. The girl told her mother that she believed her younger sister was also being abused. The older girl said she overheard a conversation between her grandfather and her younger sister where he was telling her sister not to tell anyone.

When the older girl walked into a room her younger sister was rubbing her vagina with her grandfather in the room. He told her sister “not to tell Mummy and Daddy". When the older girl questioned him about this he replied: "You know that thing, you like it too." 

The eldest girl was panicked about her younger sister and told her mother what was happening. When asked by her mother if anyone touched her private area, the five-year-old girl said only her grandfather did this and it was a secret.

The five-year-old showed her mother how her grandfather touched her. She put her hands on her vagina area inside her pyjamas and simulated her fingers moving around her vaginal area. She told her mother "this is what grandad does".

The 10-year-old girl told her mother that her grandfather touched her vagina on numerous occasions and also tickled her vagina until she urinated on him. Both girls described their grandfather touching them in the exact same manner. The accused would have both girls sleep naked in bed with him.

The 10-year-old girl was abused for almost four years between November 2017 and April 2021. Her younger sister was abused between October 2019 and December 2021.

When interviewed by Gardaí, the defendant claimed he would only touch the girls to apply Nivea cream to their vagina or help them go to the toilet. Their parents had no knowledge of and had given no permission for any cream application.

He said he did not feel that his granddaughters sleeping naked in bed with him was inappropriate. He admitted telling their girls not to tell their parents as he described their mother as “prudish”. 

In a powerful and distressing victim impact statement, the girls' mother said her daughters had been “used to sexually satisfy their grandad for years”. She said the family were left in shock and disbelief and her husband could not comprehend how his own father could do this to his girls.

The girls' mother described how they would welcome the accused into their home when he suffered bouts of depression, not realising they were providing him with more opportunities to abuse their daughters.

She described the devastating impact of the abuse on the girls.

Her eldest daughter would cry in the toilets at school and struggle every day.

“She would cry daily and say, ‘I am worthless.’ 

“She would be crawling on the living room floor wailing.” 

The accused has no previous convictions.

The court heard that a psychologist believes the man has no insight or appreciation for the gravity of the crimes. The grandfather claims he derived no sexual gratification during the abuse.

Judge Eoin Garavan adjourned the case until Thursday next, October 31, for finalisation.