A woman has been awarded €160,000 by the High Court against her brother who sexually abused her four or five times a week for five years as a child in the family home.
Michelle Swords said the abuse stopped at age 11, when she learnt in sex education class that what Kenneth Cooke had done was wrong.
She said what she learnt was "like a bolt of lightning" and that night she told Cooke – who is due for release in 14 months from a nine-year jail sentence imposed on him for indecent assaults – to stop.
"That very night he came in and said take off your knickers was the first time I said no.
"He said, 'what do you mean by no', and I said what you are doing is wrong and brothers don't do that to sisters, and he never went near me again."
Ms Swords, who was the youngest of eight children who lived in Limekiln Green, Walkinstown, Dublin, sued Cooke (61) for damages for the abuse.
She was represented by Conor Rubalcava BL and Feargal White of Coughlan White Solicitors, who obtained judgement against him last year in default of an appearance. The case came before the High Court on Tuesday for assessment of damages.
She told the court Cooke was 13 years older than her, and the abuse started when she was seven after she was moved into a bunk bed in the same room with him after one of their brothers sustained a serious head injury in a road traffic incident.
She did not know what he was doing was wrong, she said, adding: "He was my big brother and I trusted him, and he warned me not to say anything and gave me sweets and money."
She said the abuse was "so regular it was like you were having your dinner".
No suspicion
He took advantage of times when their mother was out, as she often had to take their father to hospital for appointments due to his health issue, she said. He would leave the door ajar so he could hear his mother coming up the stairs, she told the court.
Even after she moved into another bedroom after one of her sisters moved out and got married, the abuse continued and escalated to attempts at penetration. When she called out and said it was sore, he would stop.
This would usually occur on Saturday nights when he came home drunk and the other sister who shared the bedroom was out, she said.
After she learnt in school what he was doing was wrong, she said he just "acted normal and there was no suspicion among anyone".
The abuse occurred between 1983 and 1987. Ms Swords moved out in 2002 and later got married and had two children.
In 2010, she told a family member, and in 2011, at a family event, she told Cooke's own wife, who she said believed her.
When Cooke arrived and she confronted him, she said he started verbally abusing her before then trying to "put out his hand saying he was sorry".
In 2012, after she complained to the gardaí, Cooke was interviewed. In 2014, he pleaded not guilty to 16 counts of indecent assault but was found guilty by a jury and sentenced to nine years.
He subsequently received another nine-year sentence, to run consecutively to the 2014 sentence, for sexual assaults on a male and a concurrent eight-year sentence for sexual assault on another male.
She said after she had him “named and shamed” following the trial, she received no support from the rest of her family and has not had a proper relationship with them for some time.
The court heard that as a result of the abuse she suffered severe depression and self-harmed.
Ms Justice Emily Egan said she had suffered “a very grave breach of trust by someone who should have been protecting her”.
In awarding €160,000 to her against Cooke, the judge said Ms Swords had shown great courage and resilience, noting her situation had improved in the last number of years.
If you have been affected by any of the issues raised in this article, you can call the national 24-hour Rape Crisis Helpline at 1800-77 8888, access text service and webchat options at drcc.ie/services/helpline/ or visit Rape Crisis Help.
