Victim tells of horrific ordeal at hands of brute who attacked her in her own home and then threatened her with the UVF
Neil McFaul walked free from court despite pleading guilty to sexual assault and assault causing ABH.
He also threatened his victim with the UVF if she went to police about the attack.
The 32-year-old, from Village Hill Mews in Ballyclare, Co Antrim, had initially claimed the sexual contact with his victim was consensual.
He later changed his plea to guilty to sexual assault and assault causing actual bodily harm. He was acquitted of two charges of rape, including anal rape, sexual assault by penetration and causing a person to engage in sexual activity.
Despite the severity of the attack in the victim’s home, which left her bruised and suicidal, he was given an 18-month probation order, 100 hours of community service and placed on the Sex Offenders register for five years.
His victim says she’s disappointed McFaul won’t spend any time behind bars, and she’s speaking out to warn other women about the violent thug.
“I’m doing this for other women out there. I just don’t want this to happen to anyone else,” she says.
Neil McFaul
The pair met in a bar in Randalstown on July 12, 2023 when McFaul was charming and chatty at first. They shared drinks, he offered her cocaine and they kissed in the bar’s smoking area.
“We talked about life, wains, holidays, general chit chat, and I thought he was a decent guy,” says the 37-year-old.
She invited him back to her home, making it clear that sex was not on the cards.
“Before we got to my house I told him if you’re coming for sex, you’re coming to the wrong house because I don’t sleep with people the first time I meet them, and I was having my period,” she says.
Within minutes of entering her home, McFaul’s nice guy mask slipped.
“We were just sitting in my living room and all of a sudden I got this big smack across my face,” she says.
“I said ‘what the f***’. He said ‘don’t f***ing look at me like that’. I put my head down and he said ‘who asked you to put your head down’.
“He was trying to bully me. I tried to get up and that’s when he grabbed me.
“He pulled my trousers down and put me over his knee and started slapping my buttocks and left them black and blue. He grabbed my breasts and left them bruised as well.”
The assault continued for an hour and the victim says she was frozen with fear.
“People said to me why didn’t you fight back?
“I’m five foot two, and he’s a big fella. He had already hit me and I thought if I fight back what is he going to do? I feared for my life. Nothing like that has ever happened to me.
“I just couldn’t wait to get him out of my house.”
Neil McFaul walked free from court despite pleading guilty
Today’s News in 90 Seconds – September 29th
Before leaving her home McFaul also threatened her with loyalist paramilitaries.
“I told him I was going to ring the boys, by which I meant the police,” she says.
“He said if you’re threatening me with your boys I will have to get my boys involved, and he threatened me with the UVF.”
McFaul then demanded that she showed him how to get home.
“I told him to get out of my house and he wasn’t for going. I had to show him how to get out of the area I live in.
“Afterwards I didn’t ring the police for two days because I didn’t know what to do.”
She told family members immediately about her ordeal and was still in shock when she contacted the PSNI.
The victim was interviewed at her home and later at the Rowan Sexual Assault Referral Centre, which involved intimate examinations and interviews for eight hours.
The full impact of the assault only hit her afterwards, when the victim says she never felt safe in her home again, particularly in the living room where McFaul viciously attacked her.
“I could never sit in that room again. I had to get rid of the sofa where he attacked me, and I slept with a bat in the bedroom. I was torturing myself.
“Eventually I told my mum I have to get out of here.”
She moved house, and later had to leave two jobs because of panic attacks, depression and feeling suicidal.
While waiting for the court proceedings she also discovered McFaul on a Facebook group, ‘Are We Dating the Same Guy?’, where multiple women describe him as a conceited creep.
The victim says she was devastated that he didn’t receive a jail sentence for his crimes.
“His solicitor was telling the court he’s from a good family and he has no convictions. I’m from a good family. I have no convictions.
“I was so disappointed. If he’d even got three months in jail I would have been happy, for them to acknowledge what he did.”
McFaul is now subject to a combination order of probation and community service.
He must live at an approved address and must inform his probation officer of any new relationships.
He must also undergo alcohol or drug treatment as directed by his probation officer, and is banned from any contact with the victim or her family without prior approval.
Following the sentencing hearing she is now determined to move on with her life, but the horrific experience has left her wary of men.
“Two years ago I couldn’t have talked about it but time does help a wee bit.
“I have to try and move on for my children’s sake because I don’t want them suffering because of me.
“But I will never forget about it.
“And I want people to know what he did so it doesn’t happen to anyone else,” she says.