Retired solicitor John Hussey jailed for five years for sexually assaulting eight-year-old girl on a sleepover at his Cork home

John Hussey – retired solicitor and former Fianna Fail chairman of Fermoy Urban District Council – was jailed for five years for sexually assaulting an eight-year-old girl on a sleepover at his home.

Judge Catherine Staines imposed the sentence of six years on the accused and suspended the last year. 67-year-old John Hussey was sentenced at Cork Circuit Criminal Court where he admitted sexually assaulting the eight-year-old girl on the night of November 1/2 2003.

The injured party Hannah Beresford waived her right to anonymity and was described by Judge Staines as “a very brave lady”.

Ms Beresford, who is now 28, said:

“It has been deeply strange to hear this assault being described as historical, as if it all happened in the dim and distant past with little ramification in the present day. This is not history to me, this assault is an everyday fact of my life.” 

Detective Garda Mairéad Morrissey told prosecution barrister Lilly Buckley that the eight-year-old was at the home of John Hussey as nine children were present for a sleepover to celebrate his own daughter’s birthday.

The complainant was at the edge of a bed with two other girls in one room and during the night John Hussey came into the room, lifted the covers, rubbed her left leg, rubbed her vagina and put his finger in her vagina causing pain – Judge Staines said this latter aspect of the sexual assault and the deep affect it had on the complaint made it more serious.

Victim impact statement

“There have been periods when this impact has been a whisper in the background of my existence, others when it has been an all-consuming roar.

“I was eight years old. I had never before been treated with unkindness or cruelty. I did not understand what was happening, why my friend’s father was hurting me in the dark. I had never experienced a situation where the adult in charge of me did not have my best interests at heart.

“I knew that I was experiencing something dark and scary and painful. I knew that I was not safe.

“Over the years I have thought of this as an earthquake. I may sit at the epicentre, but the disaster zone extends beyond me, out to the people that I love. My mother and father and my wonderful brother have borne the weight of this too. They should never have been subjected to this and I will never forgive the impact it has had on them,” Ms Beresford said.

The young woman recalled seeing the organisation One in Four on television and the name struck her like a thunderbolt in terms of the huge proportion of the population being affected by similar crimes. 

“I started to count the number of people in any room, divide it into quarters and wonder who else had an experience like mine. I worried intensely about my friends and the girls I was in school with – had something like this happened to them?” she said.

“I was hugely angry that this man, John Hussey, had felt a right to my body, had inflicted this physical and emotional pain upon me, and that this was compounded by a sense of guilt over something for which I was not responsible. I was furious that he did not seem to carry any of the shame or guilty that I felt.

“For a very long time, I thought that a positive outcome to any justice process would be impossible and I felt very guilty for not having the courage to engage with it. I was deeply afraid of losing my community, of forever being the girl who had accused a respectable man of an awful crime.” 

One day at the age of 14 when walking alone by a river in the countryside Ms Beresford said out loud the words that she had been sexually abused as a child. “The act of speaking these words was enormously powerful. At that point I had told only my parents and cousin about what had happened to me. The burden of secrecy weighed on me very heavily. Silence compounded the pain.

“I started counselling, a process which profoundly changed my life… Without counselling, I doubt I would have found a way to navigate this effectively on my own.

“I have withdrawn from situations where I have thought I would have to explain myself, or where my reactions might not be understood. This has meant that sometimes I have felt like more of an observer than a participant in my own life… I no longer feel like a stranger to my own physical self, but this did not come easy,” she said.

As well as recognising the care of professionals she also spoke of the extraordinary love and support of family and friends, adding: “Trauma does not necessarily dissipate with time, but it can dissipate with care.” 

She said of her parents: “They have carried me through this when I could not carry it myself and I have seen the toll that this has taken on them… No parent should have to hear their child tell them they have been sexually assaulted and then have to make the impossible decisions that come from this fact.” 

Concluding her victim impact statement, she said: “This assault will always be a fact of my life, but I am looking forward to no longer carrying this particular burden of secrecy and pain.”

Arrest

John Hussey was arrested and questioned in relation to this case on April 22 2021 and he denied the allegation saying he did not sexually assault Hannah Beresford. But on January 31 2023, he pleaded guilty at Cork Circuit Criminal Court to the charge and surrendered his bail.

Defence barrister Kate Aherne said the guilty plea obviated the need for a trial and alleviated concerns the complainant may have had about giving evidence and being cross-examined.

She said John Hussey apologised to Ms Beresford and her family saying it should never have happened.

Ms Aherne said of the sexual assault: “It was a momentary lapse in judgment.” 

The five-year jail term was backdated to when he went into custody almost three months ago. His name will go on the Sex Offenders Register.