Court decision reopens nightmare for sexual abuse victims

TWO sisters who once sought the help of a teen magazine “agony aunt” in a desperate bid to end their sexual abuse nightmare stood at the front of yesterday’s demonstration outside the Dáil.

Just a year ago, Bridgeen Doherty, 35, and Fionnuala Amrein, 34, from Falmore, Dungloe, Co Donegal, were in court to see their cousin Michael O’Donnell, 43, jailed for five years.

O’Donnell was aged just 14 when he first began to abuse the girls. He went on to repeatedly rape them on various dates between 1978 and 1987.