Man (67) jailed for subjecting his younger sisters to 'horrific' and repeated sexual abuse
Bernard Brennan (67), formerly of Rathfarnham, Dublin, but most recently residing in the United States, pleaded guilty to 11 counts of indecent assault in various locations within the State between 1972 and 1975. He has no previous convictions.
Advertisement
His sisters, Yvonne Crist and Paula Fay, waived their anonymity so Brennan could be named.
Passing sentence in the Central Criminal Court on Thursday, Mr Justice Paul McDermott said the facts of the case were 'appalling'.
He said that while the abuse Brennan pleaded guilty to fell under the historic term of 'indecent assault', today the abuse would constitute offences that have a maximum sentence of life imprisonment.
However, he noted the court was bound by law to the maximum penalty of two years' imprisonment and that Brennan was a juvenile when he committed the abuse.
Advertisement
Brennan pleaded guilty in advance of his trial date to four counts of indecent assault against Ms Crist and seven counts of indecent assault against Ms Fay. Ms Crist was aged 13, while Ms Fay was just seven years old when the abuse started.
Mr Justice McDermott said some of the abuse perpetrated against the sisters was 'horrific to hear and to describe'. He said they gave 'eloquent, moving statements' outlining the horrors they have experienced and the pain they have suffered as a result of the abuse.
He said the devastation the abuse caused was 'unspeakable' and the penalties to be imposed were 'by reason of history and nothing else'.
He set a headline sentence of 21 months for each count and reduced this to 15 months, taking mitigating factors into account. He imposed four concurrent sentences of 15 months on Brennan, amounting to five years' imprisonment.
Advertisement
He reduced this to four-and-a-half years and backdated it to when Brennan went into custody earlier this year.
At a previous hearing, Detective Garda Neil Fogarty told Patrick McCullough BL, prosecuting, that in relation to Ms Fay, the abuse started when the then seven-year-old was called in to the house by Brennan – then aged 14 years old – and forced to take off her clothes in front of a group of local boys.
Brennan touched her inappropriately in front of these boys and from then on the abuse escalated, to include oral rape. He would wake her in the night to abuse her.
The court heard he threatened Ms Fay that their family would be split up if she told anyone about the abuse.
Advertisement
Ms Crist was 13 and Brennan was aged 15 when he started abusing her. He would wake her in the night, sexually assault her and make her watch pornography. He digitally penetrated her and performed oral sex on her.
She was afraid to call out or tell her parents for fear of physical punishment, the court heard.
Brennan subjected both girls to abuse in front of and with a third party, the court heard.
A letter was found from Brennan to his father, dated 2012, in which he apologised to his parents for abusing his sisters, but stated that he had no memory of it.
Advertisement
In her victim impact statement, Ms Crist said it has been hard to trust anyone in her life except her sister.
'Incest has affected me, and I have had to bury it deep inside,' she said.
'You took my innocence, and I will never forget that,' she said. 'I have become a strong person, and I have met these challenges head-to-head.'
'I forgave you, my brother, a long time ago, but I have had to hang onto the past until now. The truth has now been told, and you will now be known as a sexual predator for the rest of your life.'
'You have put us through hell,' she added. 'May you never find peace again.'
Ms Fay also read her victim impact statement to the court, in which she said she was 'silenced' in her childhood and felt 'invisible, worthless and inferior'.
'Growing up as a child, I always felt incapable, insufficient and inadequate,' she said. 'I should have felt safe in my childhood home.'
'I struggle with being alone because that's when the thoughts of self-doubt come back.'
She said the legal process has been a long and arduous one, starting back in 2021. 'I have felt so much freedom since, and so much weight lifted off my shoulders,' she said.
'I chose to survive. Today, I truly became a survivor. I now have justice.'
Det Gda Fogarty agreed with Miska Hanahoe BL, defending, that her client has no previous convictions in Ireland or any other jurisdiction.
The garda agreed with counsel that he immediately stated he would travel from the United States to Ireland and indicated that he would plead guilty.
Ms Hanahoe said her client offers an unreserved apology to both of the injured parties. She said Brennan has suffered profound guilt and shame throughout his life.
Ireland
Two teenagers sentenced for roles in rape of girl...
Read More
Counsel said he grew up in a violent home and that his only sexual education was from pornography, which he re-enacted.
She said her client has no memory of the abuse but does not dispute the evidence of his sisters. She said he has never tried to minimise his wrongdoing.
He asked the court to take into account that the Probation Services have placed him at low risk of reoffending, that he has co-operated fully with the gardaí, that he has shown remorse, and his age at the time of the offending.
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
.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
The Independent
16 minutes ago
- The Independent
Tennessee man sought in 4 deaths spent years in prison for robbing a convenience store at age 16
The man wanted in the northwest Tennessee deaths of four people — two of whom had an infant who was found alive in a front yard more than 30 miles away — had spent years in prison for robbing a convenience store as a 16-year-old and threatening to go after jurors, court records show. Authorities are now offering a reward of up to $15,000 for information leading to the arrest of 28-year-old Austin Robert Drummond. The Tennessee Bureau of Investigation has said it obtained warrants for Drummond charging him with four counts of first-degree murder, one count of aggravated kidnapping and weapons offenses. Drummond, who has been added to the TBI's Most Wanted List, should be considered armed and dangerous, officials said. Drummond was tried as an adult for the July 2013 robbery in Jackson, Tennessee. During the incident, he pointed a pistol at the gas station store worker and ordered the cash register to be opened, taking the $44 inside, court records show. During a 2020 hearing in which he was denied parole, Drummond said he was on Xanax the night of the robbery and doesn't remember robbing the gas station. He said the gun was a BB gun. After the jury convicted him of one count of aggravated robbery in August 2014, he made threats to go after jurors, Drummond said during the parole hearing. He pleaded guilty in February 2015 to 13 counts of retaliation for past action. The Associated Press obtained audio of the parole board hearing through a public records request. Drummond was given a combined 13-year sentence. His sentence ended in September 2024, according to the parole board meeting and Tennessee Department of Correction records. As of the 2020 parole hearing, Drummond had more than two dozen disciplinary issues in prison, including possession of a deadly weapon, assault, refusing a drug test and gang activity. Drummond said the assault and the deadly weapon charges occurred because he was almost beaten to death. The investigation began after an infant in a car seat was found in a front yard in the Tigrett area on Tuesday afternoon. The Dyer County Sheriff's Office said in a statement posted on social media that a caller reported the infant had been dropped off by a minivan or mid-size SUV at a 'random individual's front yard' with a photo of the baby in a paramedic's arms. After identifying the infant, the sheriff's office said later that night that they were working with investigators in neighboring Lake County where four people had been found dead. On Wednesday, the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation identified the four people found dead in Tiptonville as James M. Wilson, 21; Adrianna Williams, 20; Cortney Rose, 38; and Braydon Williams, 15. Wilson and Adrianna Williams were the infant's parents and Rose was Adrianna and Braydon Williams' mother, according to District Attorney Danny Goodman. All four of the victims lived in Dyer County, he said. Immediately after discovering the infant, investigators started looking for the baby's family and soon learned the four relatives had not been seen since the night before, Goodman said. Then a relative called 911 after finding two vehicles in a remote area. The four bodies were found in nearby woods, Goodman said. All four victims had been killed, Goodman said, but he declined to say how. Authorities did not name the infant, but an obituary for Wilson says he is survived by his daughter, Weslynne Wilson. An attorney who represented Drummond in his case as a teenager did not immediately return a message requesting a comment. A telephone listing for Drummond could not be found. ___
The Independent
16 minutes ago
- The Independent
States sue Trump, saying he is intimidating hospitals over gender-affirming care for youth
Seventeen Democratic officials accused President Donald Trump 's administration of unlawfully intimidating health care providers into stopping gender-affirming care for transgender youth in a lawsuit filed Friday. The complaint comes after a month in which at least eight major hospitals and hospital systems — all in states where the care is allowed under state law — announced they were stopping or restricting the care. The latest announcement came Thursday from UI Health in Chicago. Trump's administration announced in July that it was sending subpoenas to providers and focusing on investigating them for fraud. It later boasted in a news release that hospitals are halting treatments. The Democratic officials say Trump's policies are an attempt to impose a nationwide ban on the treatment for people under 19 — and that's unlawful because there's no federal statute that bans providing the care to minors. The suit was filed by attorneys general from 15 states and the District of Columbia, plus the governor of Pennsylvania, in U.S. District Court in Boston. 'The federal government is running a cruel and targeted harassment campaign against providers who offer lawful, lifesaving care to children,' New York Attorney General Letitia James said in a statement. Trump and others who oppose the care say that it makes permanent changes that people who receive it could come to regret — and maintain that it's being driven by questionable science. Since 2021, 28 states with Republican-controlled legislatures have adopted policies to ban or restrict gender-affirming care for minors. In June, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that states have a right to enforce those laws. For families with transgender children, the state laws and medical center policy changes have sparked urgent scrambles for treatment. The medical centers are responding to political and legal pressure The Center for Transyouth Health and Development at Children's Hospital Los Angeles, the biggest public provider of gender-affirming care for children in teens in the U.S., closed in July. At least seven other major hospitals and health systems have made similar announcements, including Children's National in Washington D.C., UChicago Medicine and Yale New Haven Health. Kaiser Permanente, which operates in California and several other states, said it would pause gender-affirming surgeries for those under 19 as of the end of August, but would continue hormone therapy. Connecticut Children's Medical Center cited 'an increasingly complex and evolving landscape" for winding down care. Other hospitals, including Penn State, had already made similar decisions since Trump returned to office in January. Alex Sheldon, executive director of GLMA, an organization that advocates for health care equity for LGBTQ+ people, said the health systems have pulled back the services for legal reasons, not medical ones. 'Not once has a hospital said they are ending care because it is not medically sound,' Sheldon said. Trump's administration has targeted the care in multiple ways Trump devoted a lot of attention to transgender people in his campaign last year as part of a growing pushback from conservatives as transgender people have gained visibility and acceptance on some fronts. Trump criticized gender-affirming care, transgender women in women's sports, and transgender women's use of women's facilities such as restrooms. On his inauguration day in January, Trump signed an executive order defining the sexes as only male and female for government purposes, setting the tone for a cascade of actions that affect transgender people. About a week later, Trump called to stop using federal money, including from Medicaid, for gender-affirming care for those under 19. About half of U.S. adults approve of Trump's handling of transgender issues, an AP-NORC poll found. But the American Medical Association says that gender is on a spectrum, and the group opposes policies that restrict access to gender-affirming health care. Gender-affirming care includes a range of medical and mental health services to support a person's gender identity, including when it's different from the sex they were assigned at birth. It includes counseling and treatment with medications that block puberty, and hormone therapy to produce physical changes, as well as surgery, which is rare for minors. In March, a judge paused enforcement of the ban on government spending for care. The court ruling didn't stop other federal government action In April, Attorney General Pam Bondi directed government investigators to focus on providers who continue to offer gender-affirming care for transgender youth. 'Under my leadership, the Department of Justice will bring these practices to an end," she wrote. In May, the Department of Health and Human Services issued a report discouraging medical interventions for transgender youth and instead focusing solely on talk therapy. The report questions adolescents' capacity to consent to life-changing treatments that could result in future infertility. The administration has not said who wrote the report, which has been deeply criticized by LGBTQ+ advocates. In June, a Justice Department memo called for prioritizing civil investigations of those who provide the treatment. In July, Justice Department announced it had sent more than 20 subpoenas to doctors and clinics involved in gender-affirming care for youth, saying they were part of investigations of health care fraud, false statements and other possible wrongdoing. And in a statement last week, the White House celebrated decisions to end gender-affirming care, which it called a 'barbaric, pseudoscientific practice' Families worry about accessing care Kristen Salvatore's 15-year-old child started hormone therapy late last year at Penn State Health. Salvatore said in an interview with The Associated Press before the lawsuit was announced that it was a major factor in reduced signs of anxiety and depression. Last month, the family received official notice from the health system that it would no longer offer the hormones for patients under 19 after July 31, though talk therapy can continue. Salvatore has been struggling to find a place that's not hours away from their Mechanicsburg, Pennsylvania, home that would provide the hormones and accept Medicaid coverage. 'I'm walking around blind with no guidance, and whatever breadcrumbs I was given are to a dead-end alleyway,' she said. The family has enough testosterone stockpiled to last until January. But if they can't find a new provider by then, Salvatore's child could risk detransitioning, she said.
.jpg%3Ftrim%3D0%2C0%2C0%2C0%26width%3D1200%26height%3D800%26crop%3D1200%3A800&w=3840&q=100)
The Independent
16 minutes ago
- The Independent
Doctor warns of hand symptom that can reveal advanced lung cancer
A Brooklyn doctor warns that a modest transformation in fingernails could indicate lung cancer. Dr. Davood Johari, a pulmonary and critical care specialist at NYC Health + Hospitals/Kings County, told the New York Post that 5 percent to 15 percent of lung cancer patients develop nail clubbing, which typically appears in later stages of the disease, often too late for effective intervention. 'Fingertips appear wider and rounder than normal, with the nails curving downwards, resembling an upside-down spoon,' Johari said as August 1 marks World Lung Cancer Day. 'The nail bed, the area under the nail, feels spongy and softer,' he added. 'The fingertip might be red or feel warmer than usual.' The exact cause of nail clubbing and the connection to lung cancer isn't fully known, but it may result from hormone-like substances produced by tumors that widen blood vessels in the fingers, increasing blood flow and causing fluid buildup under the nails. Lung cancer remains the leading cause of cancer deaths globally, with about 226,650 new U.S. diagnoses expected this year, leading to nearly 125,000 deaths. Johari urges that anyone who notices persistent changes in nail color, shape, or thickness lasting more than two weeks, even without other symptoms to seek medical attention. People with other lung cancer symptoms including a persistent cough, voice changes, unexplained weight loss or fatigue, ongoing shoulder pain that worsens at night, vision issues, or drooping eyelids, should also consult a doctor, he said. Lung cancer evaluations usually start with a medical history review, physical exam and imaging, with a biopsy required for a definitive diagnosis. Nail clubbing can also indicate other serious conditions like chronic lung infections, heart defects, gastrointestinal diseases and autoimmune disorders. Johari said that other nail changes such as dark streaks, persistent bruises, nail lifting or bleeding, may also signal various forms of cancer and shouldn't be ignored. 'Many nail changes are harmless and may be related to aging, injury and trauma or everyday activities like using nail polish,' Johari told the outlet. 'However, any changes in nail color, nail shape or thickness, which are persistent and last for more than a couple of weeks, should be checked by a physician.' While smoking is the most well-known cause of lung cancer, several other risk factors can also lead to the disease. One major cause is radon exposure, a naturally occurring, odorless, colorless and tasteless gas that is the second leading cause of lung cancer in the US, particularly among non-smokers, according to the Ohio State University Comprehensive Cancer Center. High, unsafe levels of radon are commonly found in rock, soil and groundwater. Testing homes for radon and understanding local regulations are key to reducing exposure, and fortunately, high radon levels can often be lowered through effective mitigation. Age is another factor, with two-thirds of lung cancer cases diagnosed in individuals over 65 years old, and most occurring in those over 45, per the source. A family or personal history of lung cancer also increases risk. Additional environmental and occupational exposures, such as to arsenic, asbestos, cadmium, chromium, uranium and certain petroleum products, can contribute to lung cancer development. Air pollution, prior radiation therapy to the chest or breast and a history of lung diseases such as tuberculosis further elevate the risk.
