'Your name is not worthy to sit next to mine,' woman tells brother-in-law who sexually assaulted her

A woman who was sexually assaulted by her brother-in-law said she did not want him named in coverage of the case and told him: “Your name is not worthy to sit next to mine.” 

Detective Garda Mary Bridget Enneguess who investigated the case said the first incident occurred when the injured party was 19 at Christmas 2005 when there was a family board game being played and she went upstairs to the toilet. Her brother-in-law, who was ten years older, was on the landing when she came out and pushed her against the wall and kissed her. It caused her shock and upset and she did not consent.

Later back at the kitchen table he put his hand on her thigh under the kitchen table when the board game resumed. And this formed the second sexual assault on which a jury found him guilty.

And the following March when she was babysitting, he pushed her on to a bed, pinning her hands over her and kissed her, while effectively straddling her. Judge Helen Boyle said this was the more serious count when she was babysitting a newborn baby and that there was an element of false imprisonment to that incident.

“It is against a background of paying her inappropriate attention when she was a teenager.

“It is clear this had a serious ongoing effect on her. She had to pretend during family occasions that everything was OK but were torture for her.

“The element of paying her inappropriate attention growing up as a teenager is an aggravating factor, culminating in these sexual assaults,” Judge Boyle said as she jailed the accused, who is now aged around 50, for two and a half years at Cork Circuit Criminal Court.

Alice Fawsitt, defence senior counsel, said that while the accused pleaded not guilty he did cooperate with the investigation, he has no previous convictions and has suffered a lot of mental stress, adding that he was presently on suicide watch in prison.

Judge Helen Boyle said the jury found him guilty on three counts of sexual assault following a trial earlier this month.

The victim said: “He is someone who watched me grow up, struggle socially and develop into a young awkward woman trying to find herself and her way in the world. He made me feel like I could trust him, that he understood me. However, he broke that trust when he abused me on a number of occasions in a home I was meant to feel safe in.

“During the trial, he did his best to try and discredit me and push blame on me – again taking absolutely no responsibility for his actions.

“And please, don’t get excited that I have chosen to keep your name out of the media. I have not done this because I hold guilt or shame. I have chosen to do this as by naming you I name myself. And your name is not worthy to sit next to mine in a sentence, a paragraph or an article. You are not deserving of media coverage. And I am not your victim. As I said, I am a strong and brave wife, mother, daughter, sister and friend.”