Courthouse’s support room ‘an embrace’ for witnesses says sexual abuse victim

A woman who suffered sexual abuse by her brother-in-law when she was a child, has described a new court support room in Tralee for vulnerable witnesses as being like “an embrace”.

Deborah Courtney, aged 54, from Castlegregory, Co Kerry, was only 10 when she suffered the abuse, which continued for three years. In February 2015 she and her older sister Mary, waived their right to anonymity, following the conviction of their abuser, Jimmy Flannery.

Flannery, aged 76, of Baile Na Buaile, Dingle, was jailed for 10 years, following a five-day trial at the Central Criminal Court in Dublin last year. He had denied three counts of raping Mary Courtney at locations in Dingle between January 1971 and April 1975 and 10 counts of sexual assault against her between April 1969 and April 1974.