Singer gets €830,000 award over sex abuse

A METEOR Award-nominated singer was awarded €830,000 by a High Court jury against a man who sexually abused her when she was a child.

Majella Murphy, 37, who was nominated in the Best Irish Folk/ Traditional category two years ago, said the five-month prison sentence served by her abuser, 87-year-old Michael Butler, was less than some people had done for not having a TV licence.

Ms Murphy, who was abused from the age of eight, waived her right to anonymity when Butler received his prison sentence last year. A second Butler victim, a now 31-year-old man, was awarded €945,000 by the same jury after it found Butler had abused him between 1984 and 1991.

Both victims, the court heard, had suffered abuse at the hands of Butler who also preyed on other children.

Both victims told the court how they found it difficult to return to their home town because Butler still lived there. The man said he was particularly upset that Butler still went to Mass every day as he thought this was “a kind of blasphemy”.

In April last year, Butler, of Maudlin Street, Kilkenny, pleaded guilty at Kilkenny Circuit Court to six counts of indecently assaulting Ms Murphy on dates between April 1983 and October 1984. He was given a two-year prison sentence with the last 18 months suspended. He separately received a two-year suspended sentence for the abuse of the boy between 1984 and 1991.

Psychiatrists said the abuse was the major factor in problems both had in their subsequent lives.