A Clare resident who began sexually abusing his Limerick niece from the age of six has been jailed for 15 years at the Central Criminal Court.
The man's trial heard the victim say that her uncle had ruined her childhood.
The 48-year-old man, who cannot be named for legal reasons, began abusing the girl from the age of six, and he later began raping the childon a regular basis from when she was aged nine.
He pleaded NOT guilty to a total of 32 charges, and had told Gardaí that the victim was a liar, but last December a jury found him guilty of eight counts of rape and 17 counts of sexual assault of the child between October 1998 and April 2003.
The jury was unable to reach a verdict on seven counts.
Mr Justice Paul Carney declared the man a sex offender and referred to it as "a distressing case."
Sentencing the man to 15 years in prison, he said there was "nothing of consequence in favour of the man" to allow for any of that term to be suspended. He was ordered to carry out 18 months post release supervision.
In her victim impact report the woman, now in her early 20s, described how she turned to alcohol at a young age said her uncle had ruined her childhood.
