Savile case led woman to report sex abuse

A woman molested by her brother as a child finally reported the abuse when the Jimmy Savile cases came to light.

Thomas Moran, aged 52, of Daingean, Co Offaly, was convicted by a jury last March of 13 counts of indecently assaulting his sister Roisin Moran between January 1981 and June 1984.

Ms Moran was just 8 when the abuse started.

Following that trial at the Central Criminal Court, Moran pleaded guilty to seven charges of indecently assaulting another sister, Dolores McIntyre, between April 1980 and September 1983, when she was aged between 12 and 15.

Both women waived their right in court to anonymity.

Sentencing Moran to three years imprisonment with the final 12 months suspended, Mr Justice Robert Eager paid tribute to the “determination and bravery” of the sisters for reporting the sexual abuse.

They faced “tremendous upheaval” in their family after coming forward with the abuse, along with guilt at the knowledge they had each suffered in silence, he said.

Neither sister was aware of the abuse the other had suffered until Ms Moran had a nervous breakdown in 2000 and told family members what her brother did to her.

She eventually reported her brother to gardaí in 2012 after the Savile sex abuse case came to light. The court heard, as a child, she had been a big fan of Savile and had written to him.

The court heard the children were from a family of eight siblings.

The abuse started shortly after the death of their father, when Moran assumed the role of “man of the house”, said Mr Justice Eager. Moran was aged between 16 and 19 when he abused his little sisters.

Mr Justice Eager noted Moran was a child himself during some of the offending and that he was “utterly ill-equipped” to take on the role of filling his father’s shoes. He accepted Moran was extremely unlikely to reoffend.

Moran cried and hugged family members before being returned to custody. The court heard he never came to adverse Garda attention over the following 30 years. He is married and worked in construction until being made redundant in 2010. A number of testimonials were handed into court, including one from another sister.

The trial had heard Roisin Moran was first assaulted when her brother asked her to bring some sandwiches to him when he was working on a bog. Similar abuse then took place between two and three times a week.

The abuse ended shortly after Ms Moran attended a sex education class in school and warned him she would shout if he came near her again.

“This court would like to pay tribute to her for her determination and bravery in giving evidence against her brother,” said Mr Justice Eager. “It took great courage to give evidence against him in the face of his denial.”

After Ms Moran revealed her abuse, Dolores McIntyre came forward with similar allegations. She said she was “overcome with guilt” to discover Ms Moran, four years younger, had also been abused.