Update August 2014

UPDATE AUGUST 2014 Things have been moving along nicely but slowly I met with the police in June and was happy with how things are progressing . I am satisfied that they are doing everything they can to secure convictions and that they are doing things properly now. One of the men from The Sorrento Six was removed from the large sports club he was involved in, while another one was sacked from his job and another one had to stop drinking in the pub he drank in daily for 40 years. The main ringleader of the Sorrento Six suffered a stroke and is in hospital due to the pressure of the investigation, he was questioned two times recently by the police and is beginning to fold now under the strain. The tables have well and truly turned now and they are no longer in control and have no power within the police force because a new team have come in and they are making sure everything is done properly, nothing is now going thier way, where once they called the shots, now I do, and now the shoe is on the other foot. I am waiting to hear if there will be an inquiry into my case and I am also in correspondence with GSOC, so along with the possibility of convictions there are many irons in the fire, and I am confident that the identity of the men will be known soon and that big things are on the horizon. In the meantime I am trying to study for my degree and to take breaks where I can if I'm lucky enough not to be weighed down with everything alongside trying to live a normal life which of course is not always possible as I am often brought to my knees with the weight of it all and my mind become overwhelmed with it all and I can be incapable of getting through the day or of leading any kind of existence. But onward and upwards and hoping for an outcome of some sort after the long summer when I hope to get some Positive news in of which I will update you all again. Once again thanks to everyone for thier support, I really could not do this without you all!

Update 30 May 2014 and how you can help

UPDATE 30th May 2014: Just before I shut down the facebook page I am in a position to be able to say that things are proceeding nicely. Investigations are ongoing and will be for a while yet, however I am happy with how things are proceeding and will be meeting with the police in the not too distant future and can confirm that papers will be going to the DPP. Please continue to email Frances Fitzgerald and demand she opens an inquiry into my case, remember six men are still living in Dalkey who abused me, one of them is still involved in a local sports club that has over 200 children in it, another man has recently began to drink in pubs in Dunlaoghaire so this problem has widened out to pose a risk in another town. These men are on YOUR streets, watching YOUR kids, one of them is a taxi driver, another a gardener, your children are at risk. Email Frances Fitzgerald (Minister for Justice) and demand something is done questions will have to be answered, how does a man who sexually abused me and others get to be openly involved in a club with 200 kids??? Despite him being interviewed by police only weeks ago, and in 2005, and yet he has been involved in this club for over 40 years, who is going to take responsibility for any other victims that COULD have been saved?? Email info@justice.ie APPEAL: I am once again appealing for any victim of a paedophile ring in Dalkey or Dunlaoghaire to contact my solicitor Gerry Dunne in total confidence you can specify to him that contact is in confidence and he is not allowed to pass on information that you give, email him on info@obriendunne.com. Alternatively you can contact Chief Supt Diarmuid Sullivan at Dunlaoghaire Garda Station if you want to discuss being a victim of abuse particularly if you suspect your were abused by one of the men who abused me even if they are now dead. Please continue to read and share my blog which I will update regularly . Thank you to everyone who supported me and I will try to update you all as soon as I have any more news. Please do not PM or Inbox me on this page as I will not receive it from 30th May 2014.

Sorrento Six Interviewed

Copy and paste this link: www.independent.ie/irish-news/exgardai-are-quizzed-over-baby-murder-30180293.html">

Information on my case from ukpaedos-exposed.com

THIS IS FROM THE WEBSITE http://ukpaedos-exposed.com/uk-child-abusers-named-and-shamed/facts-and-stats-on-child-abuse/its-time-to-tell-waiting-decades-to-break-the-silence/how-one-woman-has-found-the-strength-to-fight-for-justice/ 

  How one woman has found the strenght to fight for justice. How one woman has found the strength to fight for justiceThis is a true story about a girl suffering sexual abuse at the hands of her parents and “others” in Ireland in the 1970′s. Cynthia Owen grew up in Ireland, went to the local convent school, said her prayers and took her first communion with all the other girls in her class. But behind the façade of respectability lurked a hideous reality. Cynthia was just eight years old when she was first sexually abused and raped by her father amongst others At 11 years old, Cynthia was drugged and made pregnant by her father, when the baby was born Cynthia watched in horror as her own mother murdered the tiny infant, named Noleen, by repeatedly stabbing her with a knitting needle. Cynthia’s mother then wrapped the baby girl in a plastic bag, dumped her in an alleyway and made her daughter go back to school and pretend nothing had ever happened. Her parents even sold her repeatedly to a local paedophile ring of which 3 members were local police officers, one of these officers was present on the night of the murder and worked on her murder case but has never been brought to justice After enduring many more years of rape and violence, Cynthia came forward and reported her abuse and Noleen’s death. Six of the alleged ring are still alive and living in communities, but we cannot identify them for legal reasons. One is working directly with children. Another works as a gardener, while the other two masquerade as respectable pensioners. A further member of the ‘ring’ is a taxi driver who regularly ferries children in his car and the last is a former council worker and avid church goer. All are accused of buying children for ritualistic sex that allegedly occurred in a number of properties in the Dalkey area over a prolonged period of time. Her childhood was a brutal hell, with sexual abuse and vile secrets as common, ordinary and everyday as the love and security found in most families Cynthia Owen, now 51, was routinely raped by her father, ­sexually abused by her mother, and drugged with tranquillisers so a group of strangers could have sex with her. And throughout all these horrors, she was just a child. In this appalling ­catalogue, there is one event which stands out for Cynthia and which she waited 34 years to prove. Cynthia had a baby when she was 11. But she claims her mother stabbed the newborn girl to death with a knitting needle, dumped the body in a lane, and told Cynthia to forget it ever happened. Nobody will believe you, she taunted Cynthia. Youre mad. Youre a liar. That Cynthia has been able to carve out a stable and loving life for herself as an adult is remarkable, given these beginnings. But that is exactly what she has done, with a long marriage and a grown-up son to her credit. Not that its been easy, given the terrible ghosts of her past. For most of the time it feels as if my son and husband are living in the past with me, she says, but we try hard to maintain a normal home life. I protect my son from the details of my childhood, but its hard. Cynthia was so profoundly traumatised it took her more than 20 years to go to the police and it was 12 more years before the inquest into her baby daughters death took place, in 2007. The jury unanimously named Cynthia as the mother of murdered baby Noleen, who was born on April 4, 1973 in Dalkey, South Dublin, and stabbed to death the same day. Excerpts from my book "Living with Evil" written by Cynthia Owen. I staggered out of the inquest feeling elated and emotionally battered, Cynthia recalls. I had finally proved I had a baby when I was 11 who was murdered, but I wasnt sure Id got justice for Noleen.Cynthia felt cheated because her mother, Josie Murphy, had died before justice was finally done. She died laughing at me. She never served a day behind bars and nor did my father Peter Murphy, who died in 2008. And there are other men still alive out there who abused me but who have never been ­convicted so my victory was bitter-sweet.Cynthia was one of nine ­children raised in a two-bedroom council house.She went to ­convent school, and her council worker father sat in church when she took her First Holy Communion. But behind closed doors ­Cynthia was suffering ­unimaginable abuse, which started around the time she was seven. Her father raped her almost daily, even at Christmas as her siblings played downstairs. I thought that it was what all daddies did, she says, and when I complained to my mum, she said he was just rolling round drunk in the bed. The evil didnt stop there, and soon Cynthias mother was ­sexually abusing her too. There was no escape, says Cynthia. I lived like a zombie, and spent my days trying to block out the abuse. My nerves were always jangling, I was so afraid. Cynthias mother Josie drank all night and slept all day, ­insisting the house be kept in darkness with black blankets pinned over the windows. The house was filthy and cold, and Cynthia was always dirty and lice-ridden. 

The neglect alone was ­shocking, says Cynthia. 

My parents spent all their money on cigarettes and alcohol. When Cynthia was 10, the abuse ­escalated. Her mother drugged her with Valium then took her to a building in the middle of the night. Inside were a crowd of men, ­including her father, all dressed in black cloaks. I was subjected to what I now know was ritual abuse, she says. 

I was confused because of the drugs but it happened once a month, and money changed hands. The abuse had an inevitable consequence Cynthia was almost 11 when she started feeling ill. I complained to my mum about funny feelings in my stomach and she coldly replied that I was ­having a baby, that it was going to be a freak, and that I was to say nothing. I was so terrified, I obeyed her, and tried to hide my bump under a smock coat. Cynthia gave birth at home on the bedroom floor at 4 Whites Villas, now dubbed the Dalkey House of Horrors, to a baby she called Noleen.

 Both parents looked on, then argued about who was going to kill the baby. In the end Cynthia claims it was Josie who stabbed the newborn girl 40 times with a knitting needle. She thought my dad was the babys father, says Cynthia, but Noleen could have been fathered by any of the men abusing me at that time. Cynthia blacked out after ­giving birth, but later her ­mother dragged her out to dump the baby in a plastic bag in nearby Dun Laoghaire. Two schoolboys discovered the body the next day, and there was a TV appeal for information. The following years were a nightmare for Owen. 

The abuse continued. She says she got pregnant again at 15 and gave birth prematurely to a stillborn baby. She began drinking heavily. “My mother was evil,” says Owen. “I also think she was mentally ill. 

She would pit all of us children against each other and single some out as her favourites. She decided I was the baddest all. I think it’s because I used to question why she had 60 cigarettes a day while we went without socks and toothbrushes. 

Also, I was the only child that looked like her. I had her red hair and green eyes, while all the other children were dark. I don’t know if that was some kind of trigger.” Cynthia was ordered to say nothing and go back to school and the murder remained unsolved.

 There was no let-up in the abuse, however, and Cynthia eventually left the ­family home at 19. She moved away, ­determined to turn her back on the evils of her past. Cynthia met and married Simon, the man she calls her saviour, and proudly raised her son Christopher*, who is now 22 years old. She was haunted by her childhood ­experiences and was determined to see justice done, but ­Cynthia was in her 30s before she felt strong enough to go to the police.

 I needed my parents and the other paedophiles to pay for their crimes, she says. I couldnt let them get away with it for any longer. A complicated legal battle followed, with the authorities refusing to prosecute because of a lack of evidence, and Cynthia accusing the police of a cover-up. The ghosts of their past haunted Cynthias siblings too. 

Her younger brother Martin hanged himself at the age of 27, and her brother Michael died in mysterious circumstances at 29. Theresa, 33, who was raised as Cynthias sister but was actually her niece, hanged herself too, leaving behind a suicide note detailing the sexual abuse she and Michael had suffered at the hands of their father. 

 Cynthias new book, Living With Evil, tells the shocking story of her childhood, and she hopes it will force the authorities to re-examine her case. 

 She explains: I am not a scared little girl any more. I am very proud of what I have achieved, and I will not stop until all my abusers are behind bars. She is proud of her husband and son, but says family life is not easy. I am eaten up with guilt for trying to get justice for Noleen I feel my son and husband suffer for it, but they have never asked me to stop my legal battle. “What happened robbed us of a normal life. 

My husband was only 21 when I met him and I had Christopher already. Within a year of us being together I was sterilised because I couldnt cope, emotionally, with having more children. “From then on my husband knew he would never have children if he stayed with me, and I feel guilty that I took that away from him. Cynthia, who has a successfully completed a university course but is unable to work because of post-traumatic stress and depression, adds: 

The day-to-day can be a struggle, but I have built a safe and stable family life which is helping me to heal and to cope. February 2007 Cynthia Owen mother of baby girl: verdict A jury in an inquest into the death of a baby girl almost 34 years ago has reached a unanimous verdict that the child was that of Cynthia Owen. The jury also found that the place of death was a house at White’s Villas in Dalkey on 4 April 1973. The jury cannot apportion blame to any person due to the Coroners Act of 1962 and so returned an open verdict. T

he infant died as a result of shock and haemorrage due to multiple stab wounds. The Coroner Dr Kieran Geraghty thanked the jury for their deliberations. He then called Cynthia Owen into the witness box and she broke down as the verdict was announced. She was supported by her husband Simon as she told the court that she had given her child the name Noleen. 

The coroner then formally recorded that Noleen Murphy was the infant found stabbed to death 34 years ago. A number of members of the jury cried as their verdict was formally read out. Earlier the Dublin County Coroner, Dr Kieran Geraghty, told the jury that this inquest was not a criminal trial and he said the level of proof required for an inquest jury to bring in a verdict was not the same as ‘beyond reasonable doubt’ in a criminal trial. The jury had been asked to determine whether ‘on the balance of probabilities’, the mother of the infant is Cynthia Owen, who alleges she was the victim of repeated sexual abuse as a child. It took the jury of six men and six women less than five hours to reach the unanimous verdict.

Social Services

Social services have been involved in my family since 1972, they may have been involved before that but I can only find records that go back to house visits in October 1972, I was pregnant then aged 10 and a half years old. 

We had a further 2 house visits at the time, a pyschiatrist recommended that my brother (who sexually abused 4 of my siblings and myself) but who would end up with 10 different abuse allegations  against him was a danger to the community and the psychiatrist ordered he be placed in a remand school, yet no one seemed to think about our danger?

At this time, I was pregnant, my four siblings were all below the age of 8, two of them only babies, the four of these siblings could have been spared being abused, three of them are now dead.  Noleen's life could have been saved, and I would not have had to witness her murder or go on to become pregnant again.

My brother came out of the institution he was placed in, and carried on abusing all 5 of us, in the Inquest older sisters said they knew about this, that they openly discussed it with my mother (she told them our brother was abusing the younger children) and STILL no one helped us.

From 1955 to 1980, 10 children from my family home went to Loreto Abbey in Dalkey, all 10 of us, were lice ridden, filthy, smelled and displayed severe behaviour symptons, we hardly ever turned up at school, regularly fell asleep in class, and all struggled to learn.

My older siblings ran away often, went missing for weeks on end, were in regular trouble with the police and STILL no one saved us.

Information on the Review Patrick Gageby did into my files

Once Noleen was identified in the Inquest in 2007, the then Minister for Justice Michael McDowell ordered a review into the police files, because of course, questions had to be asked how a baby could be murdered in my family home, and no one ever be brought to justice.

My solicitor and I had been corresponding with the Department of Justice and with Michael McDowell, he knew we wanted a public inquiry into the case, he knew I was accusing three retired police officers of sexually abusing me and covering up the murder, to hide the fact that they could have been Noleens father, we had handed in a petition from friends, neighbours and supporters  with 2,000 signatures asking for a public inquiry but instead he commissioned Patrick Gageby to look at the police records.

Gageby was biased towards abuse victims as the previous article shows, we were never told why he was chosen, because we would have preferred at least three independent people to look at the files, not one biased barrister who had in it for abuse victims, my solicitor tried to draw up terms of reference for the review but McDowell only agreed to some of them.

Gageby refused to meet with me, I found this absolutely amazing, seeing as I was the victim but instead he got all his information from the police, his tone throughout the review was very harsh towards me, as if he personally knew me and hated me, he treated me more like a convict, he made many mistakes in the review, relied on his own personal opinion, and the bias information given to him by the police, who were friends with the men who abused me and with my father.

He did criticize the police for losing all the items at the scene, but said  public inquiry
wouldn't find them, but on the whole, the review was made up of biases against me, it called me a "complainer" and said I was conducting a witch hunt against innocent men, who by the way were all arrested on suspicion of abusing me, and he said I was trying to bring down "powerful men" this confused me as some of the men who abused me did menial jobs, and given I was from Dalkey, where actors, politicians, lawyers, doctors, and writers lived. I was at a loss as to how I would have "picked" the men I did or accused the men I did, because if I was looking for attention or to bring down powerful men, I had the cream of the crop to choose from, but instead accused men who did mundane everyday jobs, grant it, some of them were business owners, or police officers, but they were not as rich or powerful as some of the men in Dalkey I could have falsely accused if I was making this up. If I was making it up, why was I never charged with wasting police time, and why did the DPP look at the file seven times? And why did the Inquest identify Noleen as being my daughter?

It makes my blood boil when victims are accused of looking for attention when they make abuse allegations, its not and never is, good or even bad attention when a victim alleges they have been sexually abused, its shameful, and embarrassing and awful.  I had to sit through all the police statements I had made being read out at the Inquest, in front of approximately 100 people, I had never talked to my husband about the sexual abuse, or told him what they did to me. It was excruciating for me to have to sit on the stand, and have my husband and friends and strangers hear about the sex acts carried out on my body. And then have my fathers  barrister accuse me of lying or looking for attention, its not the sort of attention any human being would want or seek, unless they were actual victims trying to put right a huge injustice. At the Inquest 4 of my sisters admitted they had been abused in my family home, and my brothers Martin and Michael and sister Theresa before they died all admitted being abused, and all of my four sisters at the Inquest said that Martin, Michael and Theresa and myself had complained to them over the years that we had been sexually abused, so that including me brought the total to 8 children in my family home saying they had been abused. And yet my father still wasn't convicted.

Gageby wrote one and a half sentences in his review about the Inquest, and gave no weight to the fact that an independent jury of 12 witnesses had unanimously identified Noleen, in other words he completely ignored the fact that she had been identified as my daughter.  He recommended that no more money be spent on my case, which cut me to the core, and said that nothing further could come of a public inquiry.

Since that day, when the review was published, (September 2007) every other politician has stood by this review and held it up against me and said that the review was final, but despite this in November 2007, the police without my knowledge or prompting, opened the case again and sent another file to the DPP to try to secure prosecutions, this confused me again as it wasn't what Gageby recommended.

In the UK a similar review done in the North Wales Inquiry, by Ronald Waterhouse QC in 2000, has now been put under investigation, when it came out that the judge leading the inquiry was given false information by the police, and the government in the UK are calling for victims to come forward. And David Cameron ordered a "review into the review"  but in Ireland, a biased, review full of errors, is apparently rock solid and stands, despite a baby being found dead, stabbed to death 40 times, and the mother of that baby, being able to give eye witness testimony to that murder and identify the fathers identity and the police officers who covered up her murder.

Patrick Gageby

Top barrister calls for 15-year limit on sex abuse trials

Monday, May 30, 2005

By John Breslin
A STATUTE of limitations should be placed on criminal proceedings taken against those accused of sexual abuse, one of the country’s leading defence barristers told a conference this weekend.

Patrick Gageby, who has defended individuals accused of sex crimes sometimes decades old, said it may be time for the Government to step in and draw a line in the sand.

Mr Gageby suggested a limit of 15 years, adding that all civil cases are subject to time limits, except ironically those relating to claims of sexual abuse.

Speaking at the National Prosecutors Conference, the defence barrister said there were inherent dangers in old cases, where the key witnesses have inaccurate, faded, changed or intruded memories and where there was little additional or corroborating evidence.

In too many cases, a jury trial can turn in to a "pure beauty contest."

"Who do you like more, who's the more attractive? Who exactly is telling the truth? It comes down to body movements, gestures and the like," Mr Gageby said.

Trials often descend into desperate searches for collateral information, such as the colour of paint, whether a bicycle was in a yard or whether a school was open that year.

Mr Gageby cited a number of cases one dating back to 1951, where the accused was in his 70s and the complainant in his 50s. The jury had to decide events that happened in a closed room 50 years ago.

In another trial, there was much discussion over when Dana won the Eurovision Song Contest after it was initially claimed the assault took place some time between 1964 and 1970.

While the higher courts have consistently ruled it was up to the trial judge to decide if a case was proceeding fairly, there was little jurisprudence over when to intervene to protect an accused from an unfair trial, Mr Gageby said.

On the plus, side, there are high standards within the prosecution service and the gardaí, a strong commitment from all to secure a fair trial and the common sense of juries.

The barrister reserved his most trenchant criticism for the media and what he described as the "large industry abroad" of counsellors and psychologists.

The media is "wholly uncritical" of the redress and compensation system for victims of institutional abuse and there is almost "uncritical" acceptance of everything an alleged victim says.

Mr Gageby said he had never come across a psychological report that has found any difficulty with any person who has made a complaint. All the reports authors seem to assume the complainant is telling the truth, he said.

This story appeared in the printed version of the Irish Examiner Monday, May 30, 2005
http://www.irishexaminer.com/archives/2005/0530/ireland/top-barrister-calls-for-15-year-limit-on-sex-abuse-trials-429602293.html

My Parents

Both of my parents are now dead, my mother died in August 2006, only a few months before Noleen was identified, in the Coroners court and my father died in December 2008, he attended the Inquest and sat laughing at me, he refused to give evidence saying he was ill, and did not turn up on the final day to hear Noleen being identified as my daughter.

Within weeks of the verdict at the Inquest my father took out a high court case against the coroner, claiming that the Coroners verdict was wrong, however the Coroner didnt identify Noleen a jury of 6 men and 6 women did, but regardless my father ploughed ahead with his case, this cut me to the core, the arrogance of the man, the fact that the only court action going on in Ireland for me or my daughter was from the paedophile who had abused me and the man who might be Noleens father.

But both my parents knew they were untouchable, they were arrested for ONE DAY, on 7th June 1995 and released without charge, they had too much on the cops who had abused me, and they knew they would never be convicted, if they ever were put on a stand they had too much to tell, too many other paedophiles to bring down with them.

From 1995 to 2005, through that whole time my father never hired a lawyer, but the day after my allegations came out in the media that I had been sexually abused by three retired police officers, my father gave an interview to a newspaper to say he was going to sue me, that he was hiring a lawyer.

At the Inquest he had hired a full legal team, solicitor, lawyer, and barrister, not only for him, but for three of my sisters as well, the Inquest went on for four and a half days, his fee's would have ran into anywhere between 30-50,000, and yet he was a retired corporation worker who drank 7 nights a week and smoked 60 cigarettes a day.

When he died, he left my 3 sisters and a brother 20,000 euro each, that was 100,000 euro, I had strong suspicions he was being "paid" to be kept quiet, and so were some of my siblings, and that all of their legal fee's were being paid for them.

My 3 oldest sisters, and my brother, had always hated my father, when we were growing up, they would never sit in the same room with him, when they left home, if they came back to visit, they would always try to visit when he was out, he never spoke to any of them, and he was very hostile towards all of them.

My 3 oldest sisters all gave police statements saying that they had been abused in our family home and that their four youngest siblings had been too, two of them admitted on the stand at the Inquest that the younger children were constantly complaining about being sexually abused, and that they did nothing to help us or rescue us.

But then went on to give newspaper interviews calling us liar, and yet, the police didn't take any action against them for this, on the one hand giving police statements backing up the abuse, but on the other hand publicly calling us liars. Then they turn up at the Inquest WITH my father and support him, the change in them was too radical, and knowing them the way I do, only money could have been what changed their mind.

A newspaper ran an article asking where they all got the money for their legal fees, and where did my father get the 100,000 euro to leave in his will, but the paper was immediately threatened with a law suit if they ever printed anything like that again???

My father died before the High Court case was heard, in March 2010, but my sisters continued with it, who paid their fee's? They were unemployed? The outcome was that my sister agreed to drop the case (she hadn't a leg to stand on anyway, because there was no way she would have had the decision overturned) if the Coroner agreed to make a statement saying he wasn't implicating her in Noleens murder, that in effect meant she was now admitting Noleen was my daughter and had been murdered in our home, only she wanted her name cleared.

All of this destroyed me, that Noleen could be treated like this, beyond what they had done to her, that even my sisters could taunt me and Noleen and call us liars, that my father was behind this even though he was dead, I continually asked myself what kind of Country would allow this to happen, that even when I have fought for so many years to get Noleens inquest up and running, within weeks my abuser snatches it from my hands and begins to abuse me all over again using the legal system to do so.

I put it to the gardai that my father was being paid "bribe" money and asked them to investigate who was paying his legal fee's but they said that was a private matter, even though the Criminal Assets Bureau can investigate solicitors if they think that someone is committing fraud, and surely if a retired member of the gardai was paying my father to stay quiet about his involvement in child rape and murder, that IS a criminal matter,  but my father was untouchable, no one could touch the man, he had way too much on other people and it was that, and that alone, that kept him and my mother free.

Disclaimer Legal Stuff

The views on this blog are mine, and mine alone, they have nothing to do with my book, or the publishers of the book, any comments or information has been supplied by me, I am completely and entirely responsible for this blog.