A woman who was sexually abused by her cousin said there were times she wished she was murdered, as the sentence he received was "a slap in the face".
Sophie Brady, 26, from Athboy, Co Meath, spoke about the horrific abuse she and her older sister were subjected to by Sophie's two cousins David and Jonathan Hamilton. David Hamilton, 33, of Woodtown West, Athboy, Co Meath, pleaded guilty to sexual assault of Ms Brady and guilty to rape, oral rape and sexual assault of her older sister in Co Meath on dates between 2004 and 2008.
His brother Jonathan, 34, with the same address, pleaded guilty to one count of rape and sexual assault of Sophie's older sister on one occasion on a date in 2005. The court heard she was raped by Jonathan on one occasion after David told him to "have a go".
On Monday, David Hamilton was sentenced to seven and a half years, with the final 12 months suspended, while Jonathan Hamilton was sentenced to three years, with the final six months suspended. Ms Brady said she feels "completely failed" by the judicial system for these sentences, and called for the sentences to be appealed.
The court heard David began abusing Ms Brady when she was seven years old and he was 14. Jonathan was only charged in relation to one incident with one victim. He was 14 years old at the time of his offence.
She said: "The sentence doesn’t match the crime and I think the entire judicial system is a joke. There are times over the last few years that I wished I had been murdered. It was how I was feeling, my emotions - 'how am I ever going to get past this'?"
Ms Brady said the abuse began when she was seven years old after her two cousins moved into her home in Athboy. When she was around 10 years old she told an adult who didn’t believe her or do anything to stop it.
She said: "My first memory [of being assaulted] was when I was six or seven. They were living under the same roof. That’s why I believe it happened so often, they slept in the next room.
"I told an adult when I was nine or 10 years old that my cousin had sexually assaulted me, [they] have known for the guts of 15 years.
"[They] promised me when I was 10 that [they]would speak to David and nothing else will come of it. Nothing was ever said and that’s where my rage came from to bring it out as an adult. You cannot just get away with something like that."
After moving out of the family home at 19, Ms Brady decided to go to the guards. When she made a complaint in 2021, it emerged that her older sister had also been abused.
She said: "I wasn’t aware this had happened to her until I was 19 or 20. Once I had moved out I disclosed to her what was going on and how I felt and she said straight away 'I believe you and I know that you are telling the truth because it happened to me too'. I would never have guessed, I was really shocked."
The young woman told the court that she had suffered from PTSD because of the abuse, and felt ashamed and unclean. While she said she won’t let the abuse ruin her life, these feelings will never go away.
Ms Brady said: "I don’t know if it will ever go away, I felt like that my entire life. I was hoping Monday would be the final of everything and to receive a really lenient sentence and to be disappointed walking away from that and now to have to keep fighting with an appeal is incredibly demoralising.
"I wake up screaming and crying in the night with nightmares still, I don’t sleep properly, I have bitten my nails my whole life to the point where they bleed and my anxiety is through the roof. It’s not acceptable and it’s definitely altered who I am as a person."
The 26-year-old said her life won’t begin until the appeal of the case is over. She moved to Spain for six months but came back home to deal with the gardaí, and has suffered life-long kidney problems which she believes are due to the abuse.
Ms Brady believes David Hamilton should get at least 10 years. As they live in the same town she fears meeting him when he is released. She said: "I will always be dealing with this, this will always be in my head. I live here, they lived here, I could meet any of them and have done on several occasions.
"He will probably be back here in three years, there’s no peace, there’s no justice. I will have to live with this forever… as a person, David would be a bit of a bully, he gets his own way, he always wins and I still feel like he’s winning. He still has all the power and control."
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