A Kildare farm labourer has been jailed for 12 years for raping and sexually abusing his daughter for almost a decade.

A local detective garda revealed that the man abused the girl from when she was three years old.

On one occasion when the girl was aged about 12 years, the man tied her to a tree with calving rope and raped her.

He told Remy Farrell BL, prosecuting, that on another occasion the man tried to give the girl a tablet in a chocolate bar before he brought her to a secluded area and raped her.

Gardai found a condom with the man's DNA in a search of the spot after the girl made her formal complaints.

The man (48) who cannot be named to protect the victim's identity, had pleaded not guilty at the Central Criminal Court to 18 counts of sex assault, one count each of oral rape and attempted rape and four counts of raping his daughter on dates between 2001 and 2010.

He has no previous convictions and does not accept the jury's verdict.

The detective told Mr Farrell that the victim confided in her mother about the abuse when her parents' relationship ended.

During sessions with a garda specialist, the girl revealed that her father first abused her when she was three years old. She told them this type of abuse happened every day, until the man began to rape her.

The detective revealed that uniformed gardai happened upon the man's car pulled into an ESB substation one evening.

The girl said that her father had started to abuse her by pinning her down by the shoulders with his knees. He got back into his driver's side when he saw the patrol car arrive.

The man denied all allegations and suggested his daughter was making them up.

The detective read out the girl's victim impact statement, in which she described how she could never call her father "dad" again. She said words such as "shame, hurt, anger, depression, fear" are constantly in her head.

The detective agreed with Conor Devally SC, defending, that the man had had a disruptive background.

Mr Justice White said he agreed with the DPP's view that the rape offences warranted a 15-year sentence. He suspended the final three years of the sentence for three years, taking into consideration the man's dysfunctional background and lack of previous convictions.

He ordered the man, who has been registered as a sex offender, not to have any unwanted contact with his daughter.

Online Editors