A man has been jailed for sexually assaulting three Donegal sisters and their friend over an eight year period.
The man, who is in his 60s, cannot be named for legal reasons.
He appeared before Letterkenny Circuit Court charged with nine different offences which happened between 2001 and 2009.
Gardai told the court that one of the victims first told her uncle about the incidents who then told her father.
The father then informed a female relation of the victims whom the court heard still dates the man.
After some time the accused agreed to see Gardai and he admitted the offences
The sexual assaults began when the girls were aged 7, 11, 17 and 22.
Details of the various assaults were given to the court.
On one occasion the accused gave one of the girls a massage but then touched her privates.
On other occasions he touched them after lying beside them on a bed at their homes when they were asleep.
The older victims told Gardai they felt guilty that they had not come forwarded earlier to save the other victims form going through the same ordeals.
The man gave evidence and said he was ashamed of what he had done to all four girls.
A probation report revealed he suffered from erectile disfunction and didn’t feel like he was doing great harm to the girls at the time.
However Judge John O’Hagan said that if the public would be “shocked” if they could attend the case which was held ‘in camera.’
“If members of the public were in here they would be shocked and furious if any of their children were touched in this manner the way he did for his own personal gratification,” he said
He added that the age gap was phenomenal and that he must have known what he was doing was wrong.
He sentenced the accused to two years in prison and suspended the last six months of the term.