Derry Court told woman who was sexually abused now counselling other similarly abused women

A woman who was sexually abused over a five year period starting when she was eight years of age has told a judge during her abuser's sentencing hearing that she now works with other women who have been similarly abused.

She also told Judge Neil Rafferty KC at Derry Crown Court that she understood why the Court could only impose an absolute discharge on her abuser because he's now in a vegetative state in a care home.

The abuser, Stephen John McCullagh, 52, from Old Mountfield Road in Omagh was last year found medically unfit to be tried by a jury because he'd sustained a significant brain injury.

He'd been charged with seven counts of indecently assaulting his victim and with one count each of incitement and gross indecency.

Last November a jury formally found that McCullagh had committed the acts between August 1995 and December 2000.

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At today's sentencing hearing a prosecution barrister told Judge Rafferty that because of McCullagh's medical condition the appropriate sentence to be imposed was an absolute discharge.

Defence barrister Stephen Mooney made a similar submission.

Speaking directly to the victim in court, Judge Rafferty said "what happened to you was a crime. It should never have happened. A jury of your peers has found that the defendant committed the acts against you".

Reading from the woman's Victim Personal Statement Judge Rafferty said her hypervigilance in being over protective of her own child was perfectly normal and understandable given the ordeals and traumas she had suffered.

"The last thing you wrote in your Victim Personal Statement is possibly one of the most powerful things you will ever say in your life. You wrote you may have lost part of your childhood but that today you stand here not as a victim but as a survivor. In that statement you are saying - I will live the rest of my life undamaged by what you did to me.

"The defendant in this case will never leave the care accommodation where he is currently living. I have no option but to impose an absolute discharge because of his circumstances which include the catastrophic nature of his brain injury. That in no way undermines the findings of the jury", he said.

The victim then told Judge Rafferty that she was now counselling other women who have been similarly abused.

Judge Rafferty replied -"I have nothing but respect for you".