‘Our mother chose our abuser over us’

The stepdaughters of a man who has been jailed for eight years for sexually abusing them for a decade say they will never forgive him and their mother.

Despite John Joe Patterson being found guilty earlier this year of 39 counts of sexual assault, the mother of Emma and Vanessa Witherow still refuses to believe her daughters’ accounts.

Speaking after Patterson, 55, of Thurles, Co Tipperary, was handed down an eight-year sentence with the final 18 months suspended, the two sisters, who had waived their right to anonymity, said “there would be no forgiveness”.