Evil abuser stole my childhood from age of seven
Alison, 51, speaks out to
THIS is the evil monster who has been jailed for three years for indecently assaulting a girl from when she was aged just seven.
Brave Alison Mccaghey, 51, who waived her anonymity so her abuser Joseph Johnson can be named publicly, has spoken out to “encourage and help other victims of abuse to come forward”.
Monster Johnson, 70, of Mullaghanee, Castleblayney, Co Monaghan, was sentenced to four years with the final year suspended at Monaghan Circuit Court yesterday for eight counts of indecently assaulting Alison over a four and a half period in the early 1980s.
Alison was just seven-years-old and the sexual abuse continued until she was 11.
Initially, sicko Johnson pleaded not guilty when he was arraigned on January 12 and a jury was sworn in for his trial. However, the following day, he had a “change of heart” according to his defence counsel James Mcgowan, SC and pleaded guilty to eight charges of indecently assaulting Alison.
Johnson is Alison’s mother’s second cousin and 20 years older than Alison.
He lived close by when Alison and her family moved from Dundalk in Co Louth to Castleblayney where they built a house.
Johnson moved into Alison’s family home where he started an intimate relationship with her mother.
Then the weekly horror sexual abuse on
Alison started. She recalled a Saturday morning when she was seven and Johnson, who was naked in his bed, pulled her into the bed and put his hands into her pants and put his fingers in her vagina.
He also asked her to touch his penis, the court heard.
The abuse continued most Saturday mornings and he made her masturbate him, the court heard.
Alison told her mother when she was 11 what Johnson was doing to her.
Her mother had a row with Johnson, who left the house for several days, but then returned “as if nothing
Anxiety has taken my breath away since age seven ALISON MCCAGHEY
ON ABUSE HORROR
happened,” the court heard. The abuse continued but to a lesser degree.
Brave Alison only found the courage three years ago to make the call to report the abuse as she thought it would lift the weight off her shoulders that she has been carrying for over 30 years.
In her victim impact statement, which she bravely read out in court in front of sicko Johnson, Alison said: “I had to relive my trauma and relive all those memories in each session trying to heal my mind and get peace.
“Anxiety has taken my breath away since the age of seven to the point I’ve not been able to speak at times.
“I have had to live with panic attacks, depression, sleepless nights, the most unimaginable lack of confidence and self-belief in myself.”
She told the court her childhood was very confusing, controlled and full of secrets.
Alison said: “It would no doubt have been a happy, innocent one if Johnson had not lived in our home.
“He controlled and manipulated us and now has torn our family apart forever. I will never forgive or forget this.”
She said because of the abuse Johnson inflicted on her she became shy and withdrawn in school “which left me an easy target for bullies”.
Alison said: “In my adult years I found it difficult to commit to work as I had difficulty trusting anyone to care for my girls.
“I became over protective and paranoid about anyone harming my girls so I stayed at home.
“This put immense financial pressure on us as my husband was the only provider for our family. He reluctantly pleaded guilty while the jury had been sworn in to only eight charges of indecent assault, but this will never come close to how much torture and shame he inflicted on me throughout my childhood.
“The pain I have carried silently all these years growing up without the protection and security will live with me forever. No child should ever be faced with the explicitness that I’ve had to.”
The court heard Johnson was arrested by arrangement on February 12, 2022, and interviewed but made no admissions.
Garda Cathal Doherty gave in evidence: “He said it was total lies, that Alison hopped into his bed when he was naked and nothing happened.”
The court heard that although
Johnson acknowledged his guilt he remained in denial, a Probation Report stated.
In sentencing evil Johnson to four years with the final 12 months suspended, Judge John Alymer said the nature of his “appalling offending” was “quite egregious as it involved acts of grossly invasive sex activity which had a severe impact on his victim”.
Speaking to this paper afterwards, brave Alison, who is being supported by her husband Thomas and their three daughters, said: “I am pleased with the result. Justice has finally been done. I am relieved that it is finally over.
“I am hoping now that I don’t have
to see him around the place, and knowing that he can’t harm anyone else that I can now move on with my life.” Alison thanked the organisation One in Four for their help.
She said she also wished to thank gardai Stephanie Harvey and Cathal Doherty for all the work that they had put into the case.
Alison added: “I hope by going public today, I can encourage and help other victims to come forward and know that they too have a voice and are not to blame for anything that happened to them as children.
“I want to encourage other abuse victims to come forward, even if they are alone. It’s never too late.
“There is no one now going to dictate to me when I can and cannot speak. Those days are long gone.”
I want to encourage and help other victims
ALISON MCCAGHEY ON REACHING OUT TO OTHERS