The Royal Court building

A FATHER has been jailed for four and a half years for subjecting his daughter to two sickening sex attacks during a reign of abuse in the family home.

The 37-year-old – described in court as a ‘dangerous sexual predator’ – twice assaulted the girl when she was aged 13 and 14 years old. The attacks left her so distraught that she sank into depression and began self-harming and abusing solvents.

Years later, when the girl moved out of the house, the parent turned his attentions to another daughter, aged 14, and tried to persuade her to sleep with him.

He was yesterday jailed by the Royal Court after admitting two counts of indecent assault on one daughter and attempting to procure an act of gross indecency on the other.

Advocate Michael Haines, defending, said that his client had had an unhappy and difficult childhood. He added that despite the abuse, both children had written to their father while he was on remand in prison, and the elder daughter had regularly visited him.