Nurse jailed for rape of wife, sexual abuse of daughter

Nurse jailed for rape of wife, sexual abuse of daughter

A psychiatric nurse has been jailed for 12-and-a-half years for raping his wife three times and what the judge described as a systematic pattern of repeatedly sexually assaulting his daughter, resulting in damage that could not be quantified.

The sentencing judge at the Central Criminal Court paid tribute to both victims saying they were both truly magnificent women to whom Irish society owed a debt of gratitude.

Martin Doyle, 53, from Esker, Knock, in Co Mayo, was convicted by a jury of three counts of raping his wife Olivia Tuite in May 2009 and November 2011.

He was also convicted of 24 counts of sexually assaulting his daughter, Siobhán Moore, between 2004 and 2011 when she was between seven and 15 years of age.

Ms Justice Caroline Biggs said the counts of sexual assault against his daughter represented a sample of the offences, as Doyle had sexually assaulted Ms Moore two or three times a week while she showered.

The court heard the sexual assaults also took place at a lake near the family home, as well as in the child’s aunt’s house, and when she and her father were camping.

Doyle raped his wife in the family home the night before he was due to go the UK for his mother’s funeral. The third rape offence took place in May 2011, also in the family home.

Doyle does not accept the jury verdicts. Both women waived their anonymity to allow him to be named.

In a victim impact statement, Ms Tuite told the court she didn’t want anyone to touch her after the 2009 rapes, and even pushed her children away. She said she felt ashamed and angry for not stopping her husband.

After the 2011 incident she said she had little or no self-worth. She started to hate her body even more and suffered from depression and panic attacks. She said she used to be a bubbly, chatty person but was now closed off.

Ms Moore said her father had stolen her childhood. She said he had robbed her of her innocence and replaced it with humiliation, worthlessness and anger.

She said she had been asked during the trial why she didn’t just say stop. But, she said, she couldn’t even breathe during the assaults. All she could do, she said, was to keep her eyes shut. She said she felt “so small, so weak, so helpless.”

Ms Moore told the court she had reported the sexual assaults only after her parents separated and her father sought visitation rights with her younger sisters.

She said this had always been about protecting her sisters and she didn’t believe she deserved justice for herself. She felt she was not worthy of her husband’s love and was overprotective of her first child.

Doyle denied all allegations and continues to deny them. The court heard he has suffered with mental health issues since 2011 and has no previous convictions.

Ms Justice Biggs said in both cases Doyle was guilty of betraying the trust of his wife and daughter and of breaching the sanctity of their home.

In his probation report, one assessment found he was at low risk of reoffending, but another put the risk at moderate. The judge said she took into account the fact that the offences against his daughter went on for a prolonged duration and there was a multiplicity of them carried out when she was at her most vulnerable – either prepubescent or going through puberty.

The judge said the offences showed a “systematic pattern of sexual interference with a young child by a person in a position to have total control over her”.

She said the breach of trust between father and daughter was at the highest and most culpable degree, and had resulted in the complete destruction of her childhood. The damage done to Ms Moore could not be quantified, the judge said.

Ms Justice Biggs said the rapes were in the most serious category of such offences and noted the humiliation and degradation Ms Tuite had been subjected to.

She said she took into account the mitigating factors such as Doyle’s lack of previous convictions but noted his lack of remorse.

She sentenced him to a total of 12.5 years in prison.

Addressing Ms Tuite and Ms Moore, the judge told them that they had said they were weak, but that “nothing could be further from the truth”.

She told them they were incredibly strong women and Irish society owed them a debt of gratitude.

But for them, she said sex offenders like Martin Doyle could not be brought to justice.

They were both magnificent, the judge said and she hoped that one day they would see how “truly, truly magnificent” they both were.