Man Sentenced to 16.5 Years for Brutal Rape of Ex-Wife and Younger Sister

A woman who was raped by her ex-husband has spoken of her devastation to learn he was also raping her younger sister, saying she will be “forever haunted” that she had let the girl down. William Kavanagh (67), of Millbrook Court, Waterford, was convicted following a trial at the Central Criminal Court of a total of 59 offences against both women. On Monday he was given consecutive sentences totalling 17 and half years. The final year of the sentence was suspended on strict conditions. Kavanagh had pleaded not guilty to three counts of anal rape of his former wife and not guilty to the 56 charges relating to her younger sister, who was a child at the time of the offending. The charges against the younger sister involved sexual assault, oral rape, anal rape and vaginal rape from the time she was about seven to 16 years old. The offences took place between 1996 and 2006 in Waterford and Wexford, where Kavanagh was living at the time. Kavanagh is a well-known local musician who used to busk around the Waterford and Kilkenny area. He has four previous convictions, including two for assault. He does not accept the jury’s verdict and maintains his innocence, the court heard. Conor O’Doherty SC, prosecuting, told the court that while both women want Kavanagh to be named and understand they may be identified in reporting of the case, they do not wish for their own names to be published. The older sister, now aged 49, said in her her victim impact statement that she now understands that at times when she was asleep upstairs in their home, Kavanagh was raping her younger sister downstairs. “I never thought she would hide something so serious from me. This devastates me because we were so close, I can’t escape the guilt. My heart felt like someone was slicing into it with a knife. I was devastated,” she said. “I am horrified that anyone can be so evil. I am terrified for my children’s future,” the woman said. Referring to having developed a relationship with Kavanagh as a 17-year-old, when he was a married man 18 years her senior, the woman said: “I should have been carefree at 17 years and excited about my future. “I was just an innocent teenager desperate to be loved and instead I brought a monster into my family.” She said she will “be forever haunted by how much I let [her sister] down”. Her younger sister, now 36, said in her statement: ”I am so haunted by what he has done to me. The abuse took away opportunities I may have had. “If I had never been abused I could have lived, but because of him I barely survived,” she said, adding Kavanagh “nearly won” when she struggled, because “I didn’t want to be on this Earth any more”. “He robbed me of a normal childhood, he stole my virginity, he violated my whole body and soul. I am a survivor of child sexual abuse. I was groomed from six to 16 years old. I got away physically, but mentally I can never escape,” she said. “By finally getting justice I can take my power back. It took immense courage to take the stand here and speak my truth,” the woman continued. Mr Justice Kerida Naidoo said the evidence from the women and their victim impact statements make it “very clear” the abuse had “a very real and enduring impact” on both of them. In relation to Kavanagh’s ex-wife, Mr Justice Naidoo said the offence involved controlling behaviour, violence and degradation, and was a breach of trust. He said Kavanagh’s abuse of his wife’s sister was “an escalating campaign of grooming” and was also degrading. Kavanagh, he said, has a “very high degree of moral culpability” in the case and the judge added the abuse was conducted during “virtually the entirety of her childhood”. He noted that Kavanagh does not accept the jury’s verdict and as such, he has lost the most important mitigating feature of an acceptance of guilt. Mr Justice Naidoo imposed a sentence of seven years in relation to the offences against Kavanagh’s former wife and a consecutive term of 12 years and six months for the offences against her sister. He said as it was a consecutive term, he would reduce the global sentence by two years before he imposed a sentence 17 years and six months. The final 12 months of that term was then suspended.