A Meteor Award-nominated singer songwriter told a judge at Kilkenny District Court this week that she endured five years of twice-weekly sexual abuse from the age of eight.
Majella Murphy (35 ) told Judge Olive Buttimer in her victim impact statement that though she would have preferred to not have been named, she felt she had to come forward for justice to be done.
Michael Butler (87 ), a retired motor industry worker from Maudlin Street in Kilkenny City was before the court on six counts of sexual assault dating back to 1983.
Mr Butler, who was convicted in January 2008 of 13 counts of indecent assault and three counts of sexual assault against a male minor is currently facing several civil charges. The single man, who had been attending a special programme for sex offenders for the last two years, apologised through his barrister Aidan Doyle for what he had done to Ms Murphy.
However, Kilkenny Detective Sergeant Jim Lyng told the court that throughout the investigation, Mr Butler had difficulty accepting he had done anything wrong and in fact, showed no remorse for his actions.
Ms Murphy said in her statement that because of the abuse she endured, “on average twice a week, four hours a night for five years from the age of eight to 13”. She had been hospitalised eight times for alcoholism. She was, she said, still attending treatment for her addiction problems and suffered bulimia, anorexia and depression since her teens.
“From the moment the abuse started I knew it was a secret,” she read. “My family wasn’t very stable at the time and Mick Butler knew exactly what he was doing when he picked me. My parents thought he was looking after me and I did too. He fed me and gave me whiskey to drink when I was ten.”
She told the judge how the years of abuse started inside Mr Butler’s home, a few short steps from her own home. “He was a pillar of the community having at least ten children a day passing through his home.”
Describing years of drowning her nightmarish memories inside various alcoholic bottles, Ms Murphy told Judge Buttimer that she had waited 27 years for the day in court where justice would be done, but cautioned that Mr Butler had only been sentenced to one week in jail for his previous conviction.
“Mick Butler needs to pay for his crimes against me. He served one week in jail for 16 counts of abuse against a boy. I have heard of longer terms for people who don’t have television licences.”
Placing Mr Butler in jail overnight while she considered a sentence, Judge Buttimer took into account Mr Butler’s advanced years and the length of time that had elapsed since the abuse. Upon sentencing the following day, the judge told Mr Butler that though she commended him for pleading guilty early on in the case, she had to take into account the serious effect he had had on his victim.
“The breach of trust that a child and her parents are entitled to have in a neighbour and the robbing of the innocence of a child merits a suitable sentence of two years in prison,” she said. However, she suspended 18 months of the sentence, which she imposed for each count running concurrently.
Mr Butler was then bound to the peace for two years and told never to have unsupervised contact with any child. On hearing the sentence Ms Murphy smiled and nodded her head. Asking her partner if it was all over now, she left the courtroom nodding her head in satisfaction.
Ms Murphy will appear on the RTÉ television programme Raw Sessions on June 2 next when she releases a new single and a second album.
