Man jailed for abusing relations

http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/rss/-/1/hi/northern_ireland/6756901.stm

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A Londonderry man has been jailed for seven years for sexually abusing his nephew and nieces.

The 36-year-old father-of-three admitted the offences at Londonderry Crown Court.

The accused who cannot be named to protect the identity of his victims faced a total of 13 charges.

They included five of committing acts of gross indecency and seven of indecent assault. The abuse stopped when he was caught by his sister.

The accused started abusing his nephew when he was between 12 and 13 and his victim was just six.

He later went on to abuse his nieces over a three year period when they were between 7 and 10-years-old.

Judge Corrine Philpott told Londonderry Crown Court that it was unfortunate that other members of the family who may have known what was happening did not intervene earlier.

She said the family would be in no doubt now what the accused had done.

She said the abuse had left one of the victims mentally fragile.

The defendant was also placed on the sex offenders register for life.