A County Down father who repeatedly raped and sexually abused one of his daughters has been jailed for 17 years.
Reporting restrictions on naming Trevor Carson, 57, were lifted as his victim wanted his name released.
Carson, whose wife and family have disowned his victim, was sentenced at Downpatrick Crown Court sitting in Antrim Courthouse on Tuesday.
Judge Kennedy also ordered Carson, from William Street in Crossgar, to be placed on the sex offenders’ register for life.
In sentencing Carson, the judge said his daughter’s decision to give evidence had led to her being “rejected by the whole family” and that she and “her mother, brother and sisters may never be reconciled”.
Psychological problems
The judge told Carson he had left his daughter with deep psychological problems, made worse by having to give evidence against him.
“You denied the offences and continue to deny them, and your daughter had to go through the trauma of giving evidence and made out to be a liar,” she said.
Carson was convicted in June of eight charges of rape, 18 of indecent assault and four relating to other serious sexual assaults.
“Some of these charges were substantive, while others were specimen charges, reflecting the myriad of occasions this abuse took place,” said Judge Kennedy.
His four-day trial heard that the sexual abuse first began in 1982 when his daughter was aged just five and continued until 1998, when she finally left home.
‘Breach of trust’
The judge said there was “no clearer a case of a breach of trust than this”, where Carson had sexually abused his own daughter at a time “when she was entitled to be protected by him, rather than to be abused”.
Judge Kennedy said his case was aggravated because of the age of his victim when the abuse first began and involved “multiple rapes and indecent assaults”.
This abuse, the judge said, “was deliberated, determined and continued over 15 years”. Judge Kennedy accused Carson of having “groomed” his daughter for abuse.
The judge added that the only mitigating fact in Carson’s favour was his clear criminal record, which amounted to little in such a case of serial sex abuse.
