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| Version 1 | Version 2 |
|---|---|
| Mary Meehan says she has hard life due to stepmother abuse | Mary Meehan says she has hard life due to stepmother abuse |
| (35 minutes later) | |
| The stepdaughter of a former Sinn Fein councillor found guilty of child cruelty has said she has had "a hard life" as a result of the abuse. | The stepdaughter of a former Sinn Fein councillor found guilty of child cruelty has said she has had "a hard life" as a result of the abuse. |
| On Wednesday, Briege Meehan, from Elmfield Street in Belfast, pleaded guilty to charges of child cruelty and assault. | On Wednesday, Briege Meehan, from Elmfield Street in Belfast, pleaded guilty to charges of child cruelty and assault. |
| Seven sexual abuse charges she faced were "left on the books" and not proceeded with. | Seven sexual abuse charges she faced were "left on the books" and not proceeded with. |
| The offences occurred between July 1979 and October 1980. | The offences occurred between July 1979 and October 1980. |
| The victim of the abuse, her stepdaughter, Mary Meehan, said: "People might think I'm strong, I don't feel strong, I feel like that 10-year-old girl locked in a dog hut and nobody wanting to know. | |
| "I don't know how I feel, I just feel numb. I don't know if I'll ever be able to feel normal, because I don't know what that feels like." | |
| Mary said the "more serious" abuse started after Briege Meehan gave birth to her daughter and Mary's father, veteran IRA member Martin Meehan, went to prison, "but a lot of the silly things, where she'd trip me up, or nip me, or call me names, that used to go on even when daddy was there, behind his back". | |
| She said her father had converted the attic so she could have her own room and decorated it "beautifully". | |
| 'Worst place' | |
| But when he was jailed for IRA offences, her stepmother put a lock on the outside of it and she wasn't allowed to leave it. | |
| "It turned from a beautiful place to be, to the worst place that anybody could ever be," Mary said. | |
| "A lot of the time I spent there on my own, crying, begging, hurting, fear - it was the most horrible place to be. | |
| "There was no toilet, there was only one toilet in the house, which was down the stairs from the attic, she made me urinate and both ways in a bucket." | |
| She said also started to wet the bed, but her stepmother would not change the sheets or let her wash herself. She said there were maggots in the mattress. | |
| "I remember one particular day going to school and I was in the line to go into the classroom and all the girls started laughing and shouting 'smell you, you smell of pee' and no-one would sit beside me," she said. | |
| Hair cut with razor blades | |
| When she caught nits in school, her stepmother cut her long blond hair with razor blades. | |
| In another incident, Mary was locked in a dog-house in the yard. | |
| "I was there for three full days in the dog-hut and it was snowing and it was freezing and all I had on me was a pair of pants and a top," she said. | |
| "She warned me if I shouted or made a noise she'd bring me up the stairs and deal with me in the attic. After she let me out I had to go to school and I remember I had fleas jumping off me." | |
| Mary said her stepmother often told her why she was picking on her. | |
| "She kept saying to me, 'you remind me of your mummy', who she for some reason despised, but didn't even know," she said. | |
| Social services | |
| After neighbours and a primary school teacher started to ask questions, Mary said social services investigated. | |
| "They knew there was stuff going on eight months prior to me being removed from her care and put onto the at risk register," she said. | |
| "So I don't know why they could have let a child go through that, because only for my neighbours I probably would have been dead." | |
| Mary said that as a result of the abuse she had suffered, she had smothered her own four children with love. | |
| "I became a grandmother 17 months ago to a little granddaughter who I worship more than life itself," she said. | |
| "My children and my granddaughter and my brothers and my sister-in-law and my dear friends - only for them I don't think I'd be here today." |