'My son's memory is wiped clean every two days': Mum speaks out against serial abuser
Georgina Tuohey speaking to Cormac O'Keeffe: 'I have three children that were raped, and all have [suffered] life-changing damage,' she said. Picture: Moya Nolan
Most days, Georgina Tuohey barely makes it through.
This, she said, has been her life for the last six years.
Since December 2018 she has had to deal with the appalling reality that two of her children — Paul and Ciara* — had been raped by her then partner and the kids’ step dad, Brendan Cornally.
Three years later she discovered the third of her children — Jim* — was also raped by him.
Jim and Paul are fraternal twins.
As Ms Tuohey tried to get therapeutic help for her children she was determined to pursue the man, who she used to love, through the courts.
On Monday, the last of the three court cases against the 51-year-old Offaly man, involving Paul, finally came to an end.
Despite it meaning the difficult decision to go public, Ms Tuohey can now do what she has wanted to do: To name and shame the serial rapist and paedophile; to urge parents to be on alert; to talk to their children about this “insidious” danger, and to urge people to report to gardaí and seek justice.
“I’m doing this because there is an epidemic of child sexual abuse in this country,” Ms Tuohey told the .
“It is so prevalent that in the Criminal Courts of Justice in Dublin every second court is taken up with child sexual offences.
“Because of that I ask people to speak out about it, to seek justice themselves and not to keep it the best hidden secret.”
The devastation to her children is beyond calculation.
“I have three children that were raped, and all have [suffered] life-changing damage,” she said.
The destruction Cornally inflicted on Paul was particularly severe.
Paul was mildly autistic and was aged 13 at the time of the abuse, in 2018. Cornally was well aware of his condition.
It wasn’t until 2023, when the stress of the impending court case was building, that Paul re-experienced the trauma of the rape and went “deeper in his autism” and shut down.
“Paul became catatonic," Ms Tuohey said.
"He was reduced to wearing nappies. This young man, just in 2023, completed his Leaving Certificate with merit. He cycled to school, collected his younger brother, brought him home, made him dinner.
“Now, he can't cross the road. He can't wash himself. He can't cycle anymore. He can't even understand a child's [TV] programme where he would become frustrated and return to his bedroom again, because he just doesn't understand.
“He is isolated and very broken. That's the impact it's had on my child.”
She added: “My three children have been damaged for life, mental health issues, focus, concentration, completing tasks.
“I'm very proud of my children, because they have survived, and they continue to survive, but Brendan Cornally damaged my children. They've lost their innocence. They have not known a life of a childhood without rape and abuse.”
In 2011, Ms Tuohey was leaving a controlling situation and was “vulnerable” when she met Cornally.
She began going to a boxing club in Tullamore and Cornally was a coach there.
He trained her for a few months before he made any move and, soon after, they formed a relationship.
Ms Tuohey began bringing her children to the club and he coached them as well.
“He was very kind to them and he was all about the kids,” she recalled.
“He couldn’t do enough for them. And what got me at the time was that he had a sports car, he had an actual sports car, and he changed that for a family car. So I kind-of thought, 'he’s serious, he’s genuine, he’s making an effort'.
“I could see evidence that this guy was actually going to be a family man. This was a little bit on in the relationship. I felt I had hit the jackpot and my family liked him.”
Soon after, he gained access to her house.
“The boys would have been sitting on his knee,” Ms Tuohey said.
“We would have looked at movies together. We’d have done stuff families would have done. And so then, of course, my family liked him. My friends thought I was lucky. You know, 'he’s such a good man'.”
Cornally told Ms Tuohey she had talent at boxing but that she needed to train hard and that he could mind the kids while she did so.
He also offered to babysit when she was working. It meant he had the boys a lot of the weekends.
Unknown to her, that’s where the abuse began.
The court has heard details, particularly from Paul and Jim’s cases, of the horrendous conditions in which the abuse took place.
Cornally lived in his parents' house on 12, O’Brien Street, Tullamore, and basically had use of the front room and an adjoining bedroom, with a door linking the two rooms.
Ms Justice Caroline Biggs, who dealt the case of the two boys, said this room was “squalid, damp, and dark, full of rubbish, with filthy pillows and mattress”.
Ms Tuohey said she is tormented by this image, which she said was worsened by Cornally taking Paul’s glasses, which he need to see, leaving him even more helpless in the dark.
It was not until December 2018 that Paul told her about the abuse.
“I went to the gardaí straight away”, Ms Touhey said.
“I rang Ciara and the next day she told me she had been raped.
“She said [then] she had no memory of it, but woke up in a different place than where she slept, her underwear was off and she was very sore.”
Ms Tuohey said she was about 13 at the time.
Paul conducted an interview with specialist interviewers in 2019, which was recorded on DVD. He managed to describe what was done to him, which involved anal rape.
When he was asked how he felt after it happened, Paul said: “Not good, didn’t like it, sore.”
At another stage he spoke of pornographic videos involving teenagers shown to him. Paul told interviewers:
Though he was the last to disclose, Jim’s case was the first to be completed. In his case, gardaí described the “coercive methods” Cornally used.
He had bought the boy a PlayStation as an “allurement” and as a way of “rewarding” him. Cornally sometimes plied Jim with alcohol.
The rapes happened in a total of 11 different locations, including the family home, vehicles, and a boat.
In a moving and articulate victim impact statement, Jim, then aged 18, said:
Ms Justice Biggs praised Jim, who spoke via video link, for his “profound words” and, turning to face him directly said: “You are an incredibly strong human being. What was done was unspeakable.”
Ms Biggs had to take into account Cornally’s guilty plea, even though it was late, and his expression of remorse. She sentenced him to 10 years and nine months, with nine months suspended.
The second prosecution, for the rape of Ciara, was completed last November. That case, presided over by Mr Justice Paul Burns, ended with a sentence of two years and six months, with nine months suspended, to run consecutively.
That meant a total term of 11 years and nine months.
Before the catatonia, Ms Tuohey said Paul was a “bright, compassionate, and incredibly talented young man".
Although he had a diagnosis of mild, general learning difficulties and mild autism, she said he didn’t let that define him.
In court last month, Ms Tuohey showed the judge some of his accomplishments: a trophy he won at a chess competition and a collection of his books.
She said he was very talented at arts, crafts and design and that after completing his Leaving Cert Applied, Ballyfermot Community College said Paul would have a place in their graphics and design course when he was ready.
“Paul was also a very caring sibling to his younger brother,” she said.
“As I worked, Paul would finish school at secondary level and cycle two-three miles to his younger brother's school to collect him and bring him home.
"Both boys enjoyed their chats on the way home. Paul would then make their after-school meal, a role Paul embraced with maturity and dedication.
"I placed such trust and responsibility in Paul, and he never once let me down. He was a great child.”
Now, that has all changed.
“His life is completely broken,” Ms Tuohey said.
The impact of the trauma and the preparation for the trial of Cornally for his rape resulted in him “relieving” his experiences and being retraumatised again.
“This resulted in a significant decline in his cognitive and physical independence,” she said.
The impact has been particularly severe: “Paul’s psychiatrist explains that my son's memory is wiped clean every two days in an attempt to cope with pain.
"Every two days, Paul’s memory is wiped clean with a painfully slow chance of recovery, as part of his brain has become closed off in order to protect himself from a world full of reminders of his abuse. He has become damaged with unmeasurable consequences for possibly the rest of his life.
“Paul has no memory of having his sister or niece anymore. Every two days, Paul’s memory is wiped clean.
"No explanations, other than it's a coping mechanism to withdraw from a society which holds the memories of pain, torture, and unimaginable abuse.
"The pain and trauma which he endures every day has forced Paul deeper into his autistic self, removed from family [and] friends — and the prospects of the future that he once secured by working hard for Paul is badly damaged.”
On Monday, Ms Justice Biggs cited a number of therapeutic reports from experts in the Alders Unit in Tallaght Hospital, a therapeutic facility for child victims of sexual abuse.
One from August 2023 said the boy was “increasingly mute” and that stress around the impending court trial was triggering the original trauma.
A second report from that October said the boy was fearful and hypervigilant and suffered “nightmares and flashbacks”.
Quoting this report, Ms Biggs said the boy was increasingly withdrawn, non-verbal, and not eating and had to be hospitalised. It was “highly likely” that the catatonia developed because the sexual abuse trauma had been activated by the upcoming court process.
Ms Biggs, who also saw Paul last month, said that compared to a recording of the interview he did with specialist interviewers in 2019 there was “no doubt” that there has been a “very significant deterioration” in his ability to communicate.
Ms Justice Biggs stated that Mr Cornally was currently serving 11 years and nine months for the offences against Ms Tuohey’s other two children.
She imposed a further 11 years in Paul’s case and then went through the reasons for three sets of reductions — the first being four years for the plea of guilty.
While she said Mr Cornally could have entered it earlier, the guilty plea was very important as a trial, involving cross-examination, could have been “catastrophic” for Paul.
Ms Biggs said she was legally obliged to factor in the law on consecutive sentences, reducing the term by two years and nine months.
The sentence was then suspended a further two and a half years to “incentivise” rehabilitation and increase supervision in the community.
It total, 17 and a half years in prison — five years and nine months on top of his existing term for the other two cases.
The suspended sentence runs for five years after his release, so any arrestable offence will reactive that suspended term.
Ms Tuohey called from the court that the sentence was “an absolute disgrace” and said her children “have been destroyed” by Brendan Cornally.
Outside the CCJ, Ms Tuohey said: “I am very, very disappointed. How am I supposed to come here and ask people in similar situations — and there are many — to come forward to put your case to the judge knowing your case will be heard and that the sentence will reflect the harm?
"Today I don’t believe that happened. However, we will appeal.
"I do have to feel there is a sense of justice out there. We are appealing the decision for crimes committed to my son, with special needs. He only got five and a half years for harm he sustained to my children with additional needs.”
She said she has asked the DPP to appeal.
Ms Tuohey said she still urged people to come forward and report.
"I am imploring everyone, anyone who has suffered heinous crimes of rape, please come forward, seek help.
"We were very well protected by the police in Tullamore, Lorna Scanlon the police lady, Simon Murphy the sergeant, now retired, and Pamela Nugent, the new sergeant.
She said: "There is an epidemic of child sexual abuse and rape in this country. Nearly every room behind me [in the CCJ] is filled with cases where children are being raped, their lives destroyed, their family never to have normal life or how to live normal life."
Ms Tuohey implored people affected to come forward and put these "monsters in jail".
• If you are affected by any of the issues raised in this article, please click here for a list of support services.
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