A woman who refrained from making a complaint about a priest who sexually assaulted her because it would have upset her mother, yesterday said she wished her mother was alive to see her vindicated in court after the priest was convicted and given a suspended sentence.
Mary Morgan (46) had told Cork Circuit Criminal Court that she had waited until her mother had died before she made the complaint that Canon Denis Forde had sexually assaulted her in a sacristy because it would have been too upsetting for her mother, who worked as a sacristan.
"My mother would say that to be in the sacristy and be with a priest was the closest thing to God, he [ Forde] became her saviour and I couldn't destroy it - I would have destroyed her by telling her," said Ms Morgan after yesterday's hearing.
"I suffered all my life and she had no idea why I suffered the way I did - I just wish she could be here today if she knew what had happened and saw his conviction," said Ms Morgan, adding that it was Forde's conviction rather than sentence that meant most to her.
Ms Morgan was aged 20 when she was sexually assaulted by Forde in the sacristy of the Church of the Incarnation, Grange, Cork in 1981 and 1982.
Forde (73), the Presbytery, Dunmanway, west Cork, had denied the four charges of indecently assaulting her in the sacristy. Last February, a jury found him guilty of the four counts and yesterday Judge Seán Ó Donnabháin gave him a 12-month suspended sentence and ordered that his name be placed on the register of sex offenders.
The judge said the assaults, which he described as "groping and fondling", had a devastating effect on Ms Morgan.
He said he was not going to jail Forde, mainly because he had no previous convictions and because he had not come to the attention of the Garda in the 25 years since and because he had done much good work for the community over the years.
Forde's counsel, John Edwards SC, said he was not in a position to express remorse on behalf of his client as he continued to maintain that he was innocent of the offences.
