AN 86-YEAR-old man who sexually abused Meteor Award nominated singer-songwriter Majella Murphy as a child has been jailed for six months.
Michael Butler, a retired storeroom worker, was sentenced at Kilkenny Circuit Court yesterday.
The court heard how Butler had indecently assaulted Ms Murphy over an 18-month period from the age of eight at his home at Maudlin Street, Kilkenny City.
Ms Murphy told the court that Mr Butler had caused her “misery and pain in abundance”. She said she felt “filthy, ashamed” and “inadequate” following the abuse and became severely addicted to alcohol from her teenage years on.
Sgt Jim Lyng of Kilkenny Garda station told the court he was alerted in early 2007 to allegations of child sex abuse against Ms Murphy by an elderly neighbour.
He told Judge Olive Buttimer that Ms Murphy and a number of other children had frequented Butler’s house and that the accused would bring them fishing and give them sweets and money.
The court heard that the first assault occurred when Ms Murphy was eight and she was sitting on Butler’s knee in his house and he began to touch her. Butler pleaded guilty to six counts of indecent assault on Ms Murphy between April 1983 and October 1984.
The court also heard that Butler had given Ms Murphy whiskey during the time she was in his house as a child.
Ms Murphy, who is now a successful musician and is due to present a TV programme on Network 2 in June, read a victim impact statement to the court.
She told Judge Buttimer that, “alcohol, bulimia, anorexia, hopelessness, paranoia, misplaced shame and fear” became her “daily companions through life” following the abuse. She said that as a child she “knew” she could not tell anyone of the abuse.
“I believed that if I told then my mum and dad would leave me and I would be totally alone” she said.
She said she “felt dirty as a child” and that her abuser had “contributed to my feelings of filth, shame and inadequacy”.
The court heard that Butler, a single man, had 13 previous convictions for indecent assault and three for sexual assault.
Judge Buttimer sentenced Butler to two years in prison on each of the six counts to run concurrent and suspended the sentences by 18-months. He was also ordered to enter a bond to be of good behaviour for 18-months on his release and to have no unsupervised contact with children.