Latest news with #goddaughter
BreakingNews.ie
10-07-2025
- BreakingNews.ie
Man sentenced to 11 years in prison for rape and sexual assault of his goddaughter
A man who raped and sexually assaulted his young goddaughter has been jailed for 11 years. The man (42) was convicted of two counts of rape and three of sexual assault following a trial at the Central Criminal Court sitting in Limerick earlier this year. Advertisement The court heard that the incidents occurred between 2009 and 2012 at locations in Co Clare, when the girl was aged between six and nine years old. The man was in his late 20s at this time. He can't be identified to protect her right to anonymity. The court previously heard he is married to the girl's aunt and her godfather. The man continues to maintain his innocence. On Thursday, he was handed a sentence of 11 years and six months, with the final six months suspended for one year on strict conditions. Advertisement In a victim impact statement read on her behalf at an earlier hearing, the injured party said her childhood and innocence were stolen. She said she doesn't recall any happy memories, only fear and pain. She said she may 'never be able to be normal'. She 'remembers everything he did to me,' and it makes her feel 'sick and depressed'. She said she was an innocent child and 'no child deserves to be raped and sexually assaulted by a grown man'. Advertisement 'I was a helpless child, crying for him to stop, but he never did'. She said she 'wanted to die' and stopped eating, going to 'skin and bone'. She also suffered from depression and anxiety. She said she feels the same, despite the man's conviction, adding that it is 'great he will get a few years in prison, which is some not for me'. She said what happened will always be with her, and it 'saddens and sickens me how any man can rape a child'. Advertisement Imposing sentence today, Mr Justice Kerida Naidoo noted the seriousness of this offending, its impact on the victim, her age at the time and that multiple incidents occurred. He set a headline sentence of 13 years to reflect the man's global offending, which he reduced to 11 and a half years, taking into account the mitigation, including testimonials on the man's behalf. Mr Justice Naidoo noted the testimonials state that the man has made 'positive contributions' to his community, including a local sports club. An investigating garda gave evidence that the man touched the girl inappropriately for the first time just after her sixth birthday while she was staying at his home. Advertisement He raped her in a separate incident after giving her his phone to play a game on. She didn't know what was happening, and when she asked him, he replied, 'It's okay, it will be over soon'. The girl said it felt like her insides were being ripped apart, and she was crying and begging him to stop. In another incident, he touched the girl inappropriately. His wife came home and was unhappy that the girl was not in school. After her aunt left, the man raped the girl. He again gave her his phone to play with. The girl noticed some bleeding afterwards. Her mother and grandmother gave evidence during the trial that they knew about this bleeding, but there was no medical follow-up at the time. At a later date, the defendant brought the girl to another location where he touched her inappropriately. She asked to go home, telling him she didn't like being touched. The girl disclosed the abuse in 2020, and a specialist interview took place in early 2021. She requested that the investigation be paused while she completed her state exams, and it resumed after she made another statement. The defendant denied the allegations when interviewed. During the trial, the defence case was that these events didn't happen, with the girl having false, untrue or invented memories. The defendant has no previous convictions. The investigating garda agreed with Mark Nicholas SC, defending, that there is no evidence that the man told the girl not to tell anyone. It was further accepted that the man has a long work history, seems well-regarded in his community and has been involved in fundraising and community activities. Mr Nicholas asked the court to take into account the running of the trial. He submitted that the sexual assaults were not at the more serious end of the range for this type of offending. Counsel asked the court to take into account his client's personal circumstances and any mitigating features of the case, including his client's lack of previous convictions. Testimonials were submitted to the court on the man's behalf, which Mr Nicholas said described his client as a good worker and a provider for his family. 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 or visit Rape Crisis Help .
Telegraph
06-07-2025
- Entertainment
- Telegraph
The Midults: I'm cross with my ungrateful goddaughter
Dear A&E, I have noticed that my 15-year-old goddaughter has not thanked me for a present in the past few years. I send something for every Christmas and birthday, and I used to love getting the little scribbles and drawings. These days I don't even get a text, and it's making me not want to send anything ever again. Should I tell her mother how I feel? Or suck it up because she's a teenager and doesn't prioritise? We used to have a good relationship, but we haven't seen each other much lately. – Ticked-off Dear Ticked-off, Obviously this is rude. Don't we abhor rudeness? Wouldn't it be infinitely more satisfying, given the effort you made, if you were instantly rewarded with a perfectly pitched thank-you letter? ChatGPT would never forget to send a malleable missive, but teenagers aren't AI, and they aren't emotionally intelligent either. They are wandering the world in a hormonal vortex of their own, sliding between one existential crisis and another, triggered by anything from the break-up of their favourite band to pointed whispering on the bus. Not forgetting causes and atrocities, and the horror of skinny jeans returning. Anyone who disputes this has just forgotten what it is like. Being a teenager is pretty awful; you lose your collective mind. Never forget that there was a national helpline set up when Take That broke up in 1996. Your goddaughter probably (definitely) struggles to say thank you to her actual parents, let alone the random woman who sends her presents every year, as lovely as they may be. Especially since her mother probably (definitely) can no longer be bothered to police the process. We know, dear Ticked-off, that feeling like some random woman is not nice. Particularly as you clearly take the present-giving aspect of god-parenthood seriously. Most of us would rather avoid buying presents at all – the pressure, the cost, the pressure again. Unless you are Meghan Markle; consider gift-giving one of your many love languages; and are happiest indulging in hours of calligraphy and petal-scattering a day, present buying is extremely stressful. Presents for teenagers? Intimidating. Your goddaughter neglecting to acknowledge this effort? Well, it makes you feel invisible, doesn't it? We are no strangers to this gratitude vacuum. Emilie, who usually has an extremely long and elastic tether about things, got fed up with a friend of hers' children never responding to the tenners she sent in the post. She stopped. But Emilie was brought up in a feverish 'thank-you letter' environment. One year, she and her sister wrote the thank-yous as they opened their presents. Emilie slightly regrets her decision to stop sending the money – particularly when she sees how thrilled and grateful her own teenagers are when unexpected things arrive. Even if it takes them a bit of nagging to respond. Annabel's goddaughter went a bit quiet during her teenage years and then astonished her recently with a two-sided love-bomb of a letter. Annabel, impatient in almost every aspect of her life, had decided to hang in there, and she reaped the rewards. So, perhaps instead of viewing this in strictly transactional terms, why not think a little differently? Here we have two females: one, a teen, feeling confused and buffeted by the world in general, and the other, you, taken for granted. Why not change things up? Instead of sending presents, which were delightful and magical when she was young, you could consider converting this into time and space together. Perhaps you might take her out for an experience. Instead of walking away, is it time to deepen your relationship? She might appreciate having another sort-of-family-member-but-not grown-up in her life. You might appreciate it too. You could take her out to the theatre or to dinner or for a manicure – Annabel took another set of goddaughters out for lunch and a piercing last Christmas. Wouldn't it be more rewarding if being a god-parent became about offering yourself up as another trusted adult to help steer your goddaughter's journey through life? Instead of seething at the rudeness (and we still agree it's rude) of teenagers, why not lean into the situation? Why not use this as an opportunity for connection rather than disconnection? Some readers might disapprove of this approach, thinking it wrong to reward bad manners, to double-down when people are behaving in a disappointing fashion. Sure, you could absolutely cut your goddaughter off, or talk to her mother about the lack of gratitude, and see how that works out for you. Or you could quietly think about how you can reconfigure all this so that you gain something lovely and meaningful, a new set of memories you can cherish as much as the adorable hand-written scribblings of the toddler you once knew. And, dear Ticked-off, with this new relationship, who knows, you might find you get a really beautiful yield.
Daily Mail
21-06-2025
- Health
- Daily Mail
I thought I lived in a quaint, safe town... until my 16-year-old sister vanished in broad daylight
The last time Heather Bish saw her sister was just hours before she disappeared. Heather had just gotten over a stomach bug and sister Molly, 16, was excited to visit her and her goddaughter, Heather's 11-month-old baby.
