Bloodstained rape horror: Three brothers who subjected their sister to years of horrific sexual assault are jailed in Ireland for abusing her and her underage family members after “their father taught them to rape”.

Three men have been jailed in Ireland after subjecting their sister and underage family members to years of sickening sexual assault.

The attackers, who cannot be named to protect the victims, now face prison terms of between 11 and 16.5 years after the gruesome abuse they suffered at the hands of their father.

Her mother (64) was sent to prison on Monday on charges of helping one of her sons after he raped her granddaughter and on charges of assaulting the same child.

Her father (66) was found guilty in the same trial in May. His sentencing, scheduled for today, has been postponed while he remains in the hospital.

The verdicts came after a three-week trial which examined the crimes committed across the country between 1999 and 2005.

Ms Justice Mary Ellen Ring said the family was “ruled by a deviant father figure who abused and mistreated his wife and children, grandchild and other family members”.

She said he “relentlessly exploited family members with violence and deviant behaviour. “It is terrible that his sons learned of their father’s abuse and rape.

The Central Criminal Court in Dublin heard that all five family members maintained their innocence.

The unnamed father is currently serving 16 years in prison for sexually abusing his daughter.

She apparently became pregnant with his child at the age of 17.

“He was the father, not the grandfather, of his daughter’s child,” Judge Ring said.

He and his wife raised the child as their own.

Ms Ring said the affected children’s rights to safety, food, education and protection had been repeatedly violated, the Irish Times reported.

“You have led a very simple and difficult life over the years,” the judge said. “The house was often by the side of the road.”

The family was apparently part of an extended community of travelers.

Ms Justice Ring said neither brother had shown remorse for the crimes or compassion for the victims.

In May, a then 30-year-old complainant testified that she was raped four times by two of her uncles, who are defendants in the trial, while she was visiting her grandparents in Leinster.

She said she told her grandmother about one of the incidents and claimed she was beaten with a stick for lying.

On another occasion, she described being attacked by an uncle when the family stopped to get food from the uncle’s van.

She said she was told to stay in the van while the others left. Her uncle drove down the street, grabbed her and threw her into the back of the van, where he anally raped her.

She described another rape incident and said of her uncle: “It was just a game for him. He didn’t care.’

A 41-year-old man was found guilty on 19 charges of raping his sister, four charges of sexual abuse and three charges of oral rape.

He was sentenced to 15 years in prison.

A 40-year-old was found guilty of 20 counts of rape, five counts of sexual assault and three counts of oral rape.

He was sentenced to 11 years in prison.

Another 39-year-old was found guilty on 20 counts of raping his sister, four counts of sexual abuse and six counts of oral rape.

He was also found guilty of two counts of anal rape of his niece and two counts of anal rape of a male cousin.

He was sentenced to 16.5 years in prison.

All three were found to have a combined 468 previous convictions, mostly for traffic offences.

The father was found guilty of 24 charges, including two charges of anal rape of his granddaughter and 22 charges of anal rape of a cousin.

This included twelve counts of anal rape and ten counts of oral rape.

The court heard he also has 185 previous convictions, including 99 for sexually abusing two of his daughters.

The mother was sentenced to four years in prison. In her judgment, Ms Ring noted that she was the victim of physical and sexual abuse by her husband.

She had no previous convictions.