'Because of your disgusting behaviour my life has been left in tatters,' woman tells uncle who sexually assaulted her when she was 10
A ten-year-old girl spending a weekend at her aunt and uncle’s house while her parents went to a concert in Dublin was sexually assaulted by her uncle three times in one night and today, some 30 years later, he has been jailed for three years. Pic: Larry Cummins
A 10-year-old girl spending a weekend at her aunt and uncle’s house while her parents went to a concert in Dublin was sexually assaulted by her uncle three times in one night and today, some 30 years later, he has been jailed for three years.
Judge Helen Boyle said 70-year-old Michael O’Riordan of 94 Friar Street, Cork, had been guilty of an egregious breach of trust by the molesting of Olivia McCarthy when she was only ten years old, in a case investigated by Detective Garda June O’Shea. A jury found him guilty of charges which stated that he carried out the sexual assaults by putting his finger’s in the child’s vagina when she was in bed. At one stage she pretended to sleepwalk in a vain attempt to get away from him but the abuse continued later that night.
Ms McCarthy waived her right to anonymity at Cork Circuit Criminal Court saying: “For the first time in my life, I can now name the paedophile that has ruined my whole life. That monster’s name is Michael O’Riordan. I have decided to name this child molester because I believe, as a society, we have a problem with silencing the victim and protecting the abuser. Childhood abuse goes way beyond the trauma inflicted on the individual victim. Trauma travels through families and even generations.
“Because of your disgusting behaviour my life has been left in tatters… Because of the constant stress and need to hide from you in my childhood I have developed a chronic pain condition, fibromyalgia. This disease has ravaged my body and has me in such pain all the time that I am mostly bedbound in pain. I'm in such bad health my 70-year-old father has had to become my full time carer, I'm only 40 years old.
“I now have to fight with the Irish government everyday to try and get safe and affordable access to medical cannabis which is the only drug that allows my body to relax from the pain for a bit.
“You took my chance to be a mother. I knew from a young age I could never bring children into this world because the only thing scarier than I went through is the thought of someone so close being able to do that to my children. This is how deep the trauma I experienced from your depraved sexual acts go. You made me afraid of the world.
"I want to express my gratitude and thanks to my Dad Dave, my two sisters Aileen and Evelyn and my uncle Garry for standing by for these long four years. And to June and Mary-Jane (Somers) of An Garda Síochána protective services unit and their impeccable team thank you for always making me feel safe to express my trauma.
“If people can take one thing away from this trial it is to please stop the silence. The only person silence is helping is the sexual predator. We need to start having the uncomfortable conversations and stop revictimizing the victim. It’s heartbreaking how common child sexual abuse is in our society but it’s living behind a wall of silence. We need to break this wall of silence and shine a light on these paedophiles instead of constantly protecting them.”
Judge Boyle noted that the accused was married to a sister of the victim’s mother. “This has caused a split in the family… That is your (Michael O’Riordan’s) fault, it is because of your actions on a 10-year-old child. She and her family had to bear the consequences of that.”
- If you are affected by any of the issues raised in this article, please click here for a list of support services.
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