'I am free': Victim reacts after older brother jailed for decade of sexual abuse and rape at Cork home
A man has been jailed for eight years for the repeated sexual abuse and rape of his younger brother.
Over the course of a decade John Murphy abused his brother who was aged between 10 and 20 years old. The abuse took place in the family home in a town in Cork between 1988 and 1997.
The Central Criminal Court heard that the victim, now aged in his 40s, wished to waive his anonymity so that his abuser could be identified.
Murphy (aged 45) formerly of Waterfall, Co. Cork, pleaded guilty last April to 12 sample counts including three of oral rape.
Today, Mr Justice Micheal White said that Murphy used his younger brother for sexual gratification and that this had a devastating impact on the victim. He described the breach of trust as fundamental, saying the brotherly relationship was “cruelly violated”.
He set a headline sentence of 13 years which he reduced to 10 in consideration of the man's admissions to gardaí and subsequent guilty pleas.
Mr Justice White suspended the last two years on condition that Murphy engage with psychological services and victim-focused work while in custody and stay under Probation Service supervision for that period.
He also ordered Murphy to undergo assessment for a sex offender treatment programme.
Reading his victim impact statement to court the victim said that he had been on a long and horrendous journey.
“When John decided to what what he did to me, he imposed a life sentence on me,” he said. He said Murphy took advantage of a child's innocence to satisfy his own sexual desire.
He said:
“I looked at him as a big brother and a hero. He looked at me as a sexual object. He became my biggest villain.”
He said his brother groomed him and manipulated him and, as a result, the victim began to pull away from family and friends and became angry and violent in the family home.
“I was lashing out. I was screaming out for help in the wrong way. Every aspect of my life was falling apart,” he said. He said he is now no longer a victim.
“I am a survivor. I am free of his disgusting and sick secret. I give back to John the shame, the loneliness, the resentment, the hatred that he gave to me over 30 years ago. He will carry this burden for the rest of his life,” he said.
Emmet Boyle BL, defending, asked the court to consider the fact that when gardaí went to his client with some of the allegations Murphy admitted them and disclosed other incidents of abuse of his brother.
He said his client was aware of his sexual orientation from a young age but was ashamed of it. Justice White said he accepted Murphy had these difficulties but said that sexual orientation had no impact on and “is no excuse” for abusive behaviour.
