A Dublin man who raped his younger sister with a screwdriver has been jailed for 11 years.

In a moving victim impact statement, the woman described how her life at age 10 had been “filled with a black hole of uncertainty, fear and terror” when her brother started sexually abusing her.

The man (aged 33), who cannot be named to protect the victim’s identity, was convicted by a jury earlier this year.

He had pleaded not guilty at the Central Criminal Court to 48 counts, including rape and sexual assault, at two Dublin locations between 2000 and 2005.

He has no previous convictions.

The woman, reading from her statement, revealed how she’d thought she had the perfect life before the abuse.

She said her family had changed forever and that her parents were “shadows” of themselves since the court proceedings.

She said her father had told her: “I thought I had to protect you from the monsters in the street, not the monster in my home”.

She described suffering from anxiety, depression and ill health and that at school she had found it easier to “hide” in groups than hold individual friendships.

“I don’t know why he put me through this, I didn’t deserve to be abused”, the woman said.

She said the fact her brother had showed no remorse for his offending would stay with her “till the day I die”.

She revealed that after the guilty verdicts, she had looked out the window of the court building into the Phoenix Park and remembered thinking that the grass looked greener.

She described herself as now free since the conviction, saying: “My life is no longer monotone”.

Ms Justice Isobel Kennedy jailed the man for 11 years having previously adjourned the case last week to consider the evidence.

Garda Sinead Tyrrell said the abuse began with touching, oral sex and “use of a screwdriver” shortly after the victim had received a “love bite” from her brother when she was aged 10 years.

Gda Tyrrell told John O’Kelly SC, prosecuting, that the abuse then progressed to rape.

The garda agreed with Hugh Hartnett SC, defending, that his client had worked hard all his life from when he was a teenager and that he had never been in trouble before with the law.

Mr Hartnett handed in testimonials and letters to the court on the man’s behalf and asked Ms Justice Kennedy to take into account his client’s employment history.

Mr Hartnett said the man had started studying while in custody and that he had faced family difficulties since the trial.