Jailed for abuse of four sisters-in-law

A LONG-DISTANCE truck driver has been jailed for 12 months after he pleaded guilty to 20 counts of sexually assaulting four of his sisters- in-law when they were all young girls over 25 years ago.

John Joe Twomey (62), a father of two, Church View, Ballincollig pleaded guilty to sexually assaulting Carol, Regina, Yvonne and Fiona O’Connell when they were aged between five and 15 in Cork city between 1972 and 1985. (The victims agreed to be named).

Det Garda Gary Duggan told Cork Circuit Criminal Court how Twomey got to know the girls when he started going out with their older sister, Patricia. He was welcomed into the family home and he used to take them out for trips in his car. Twomey, who began abusing the girls when he was 22, abused each girl individually so none of the sisters knew that he had abused the others.

The abuse only came to light when all the sisters had gone away for a weekend and they began discussing their experiences. It had led to a major family rift.

Twomey was arrested for questioning about the complaints in November 2008 and he admitted the assaults but said that it “was just a bit of tomfoolery”, said Det Garda Duggan. He added that Twomey had no previous convictions nor was he the subject of any complaints since.

Twomey apologised in court for the trauma he had caused his victims and the damage that he had done to their family. “I am truly sorry for what they have gone through and what they are going through today and for breaking up the family,” he said.

Judge Seán Ó Donnabháin said Twomey had to be given credit for his guilty plea and sparing his victims the trauma of a trial as well as acknowledging to society the wrong he had done them as he was much older than them at the time.