A Court has heard that a West Clare man lured his six-year old niece to his home with the promise of biscuits, before sexually assaulting her.
The 77-year-old has pleaded guilty at Ennis District Court to the sexual assault of two of his nieces in the 1990s.
Ennis District Court heard the man first sexually assaulted the younger niece when she was aged six or seven in 1992 and 1993 and sexually assaulted her sister in 1996/97 when she was aged 14 to 15 years old.
He also pleaded guilty to a fourth sex assault count against the younger woman in 2009 when she was aged 23 years old.
In Garda interviews, counsel for the State, Stephen Coughlan said t the accused tried to put the blame on his two young female nieces for the sexual abuse that occurred.
Mr Coughlan said: “It was the uncle’s view that it wasn’t his fault. That the children were the ones who were responsible for all of this – that they egged him on.
In a victim impact statement, the victim of three counts of sexual assault said that her uncles’s sex assaults have left her distressed, disgusted, hurt and angry.
The man has no previous convictions and his counsel, Mark Nicholas said that his client had a blameless life apart from the sex assaults.
Judge Gerald Keys said that he required time to consider the case – he adjourned sentence to later this month and remanded the accused on continuing bail.
