Woman tells how child abuser ex-husband and his supporters have made her life hell
Predator Cawley (53), from Garristown in north Dublin, and his supporters have been causing chaos since he was released from prison in April after serving just four-and-a-half years for abusing his niece Winnie McDonagh, who he had raised from the age of four.
His ex-wife, Martina Maguire, who left him after the abuse allegations came to light, told the Sunday World this week that she was viciously assaulted by associates of Cawley in her home following his release and has had to flee the area, fearing for her life.
Martina Maguire
“My life is under threat. They made a phone call saying ‘she will not get back to the house in Garristown and if she does she’ll know what we have waiting for her’.
“I wouldn’t go back myself. I know my fears and I know what they’re capable of doing.”
Even after she moved out of the house to stay with friends, associates of Cawley targeted her again and slashed the tyres of her car.
Terrified
Since his release from prison Cawley has also viciously assaulted a male relative of Winnie and Martina in a shop in Finglas in front of terrified witnesses in a incident recorded by his associates and posted online.
The man is understood to have been targeted because he supported brave Winnie when she came forward.
No complaint was made to gardaí over the assault.
Patrick ‘Podge’ Cawley was caught on camera assaulting a male relative of Winnie and Martina in a shop in Finglas
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Close associates of Cawley also tried to ram the same man off the road in an incident in Ashbourne, Co. Meath, and smashed up his home and vehicles in two other attacks.
They brazenly filmed themselves trying to ram the man, who had to take evasive measures to get away, and even filmed themselves outside the local Garda station afterwards.
“He had his 14-year-old with him and if they had crashed into the car the child would have been killed or seriously hurt,” Martina said.
In a harrowing interview, Martina told the Sunday World this week how she put up with years of physical abuse at the hands of evil Cawley, who she met when she was 15, and went on to have 13 children with him.
“I went through a lot of abuse with Patrick Cawley,” she said.
“I had many black eyes and beatings, even when pregnant.”
She said she could write “multiple books” on the amount of abuse she suffered at his hands.
Winnie was raped by Cawley from the age of 14
“I had my first baby and he came to the hospital to give me a slap across my face,” she revealed.
“I didn’t report it. We’re from the Travelling community and afraid our kids will be taken. So we hide a lot of what is going on. The mothers will take all the abuse because we’re afraid to report things. We’re absolutely suffering in silence. I had my second baby and on the day I got my second baby christened I was in minding the two kids and he was drinking. I wasn’t drinking.
“By the end of the night I got a full-force kick into the mouth with a big huge boot and broke all my bottom teeth.”
Martina said Cawley would regularly go out on drinking binges and come back to beat her.
Drunk
“I wouldn’t be out drinking or socialising but he’d be out drinking and then come back and beat me. I didn’t report any of this because you’re always afraid it will fall back on the children
“He was getting away with murder — and the more he got away with it the more he did it
“He kept doing it. It became part of my life. He’d come home drunk and beat me. I’d have a black eye and broken teeth and it just became part of my life.”
She said she and her ex-husband took in her niece Winnie from the age of four after she became orphaned and raised her as their own.
“She called me ‘Mammy’ and called him ‘Daddy’,” Martina said.
Twisted Cawley started raping Winnie two to three times a week from the age of 14, mainly away from the family home.
When she bravely came forward to report the abuse the evil beast and his supporters branded her a liar.
Martina Maguire shows bruises to her head and legs and (bottom) the slashed tyres on her car
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Cawley later admitted to having sex with Winnie but falsely tried to describe the repeated rapes of a child as an “affair”.
Martina spoke up in defence of Winnie when she came forward and told Cawley’s supporters the truth – but in return, one of Cawley’s supporters gave her a black eye “that lasted for three weeks”.
“She was a vulnerable child and he knew what he was doing,” said Martina. “He was recorded saying ‘don’t tell anyone because someone will be killed over it’.
“Fair play to Winnie for bringing it out.
“On the last day of the court he pleaded guilty and I took Winnie in my car and I walked straight in through those doors and I sat right beside her and I supported her.”
Martina’s divorce was finalised three years ago while Cawley was in prison and, ahead of his release, she passed on word that he wasn’t to return to their family home in Garristown.
She said he had booked a hotel in Northern Ireland for a family celebration for his release on April 1 but he turned up at the family home that same day against her wishes.
Martina said she contacted gardaí over the matter and Cawley later agreed not to visit the house and moved into a caravan in the garden of another property in Garristown near the local school.
However, since then, Martina has been effectively forced out of her own home.
She said two supporters of Cawley, who are well known to her, viciously assaulted her in the home because she wouldn’t allow her ex to return.
“Both of them attacked me in my kitchen. I was left with bruises everywhere. One of them banged me on the back of the head and was punching me and the other was pushing and shoving me. My right hand, left arm and legs were all bruised and I had a lump on my head.
“They broke my phone so I couldn’t ring the guards. One kept screaming ‘take her keys and break her car’. Thank God that didn’t happen. They ran out my door.”
Targeted
Martina reported the incident to gardaí but left the station terrified she would be targeted again.
She then moved in with a friend in a different part of Dublin but Cawley’s supporters followed her and slashed her tyres.
“There’s video footage and they’re covered up but it’s 100 per cent [the same people who carried out the assault].”
Gardaí subsequently had to accompany her to her home so she could pick up clothes.
The guards helped Martina to get into the house but when she got in she found all her clothes were gone from the home.
“Everything was gone. They even went through the wash basket and took the clothes I had there that hadn’t been washed.”
Martina contacted the council over the situation and they said she could go back to the home with her three children.
“I said I couldn’t live another night in it – I would be having nightmares.
“Would we live in peace? I said would you put yourself in my shoes, would you live in my home with your three kids?
“My nerves are gone. I’ll be 51 in August and a strong 51, but this is breaking my nerves.”
She said she sought relief from the courts over the situation but was effectively told to take the matter to Pavee Point instead as it was a ‘Traveller dispute’.
She said Cawley’s supporters are determined not to let her back to the house.
Allegations
“It is all down to get somewhere for him. They all want to be together as a group.
“None of this kicked off in the four-and-a-half years until he got released, and everything just kicked back off. It like when the allegations first came out. It’s right back to day one again.”
Winnie previously told the Sunday World how she was forced to flee the Republic with her children due to threats after she came forward.
Patrick ‘Podge’ Cawley
News in 90 Seconds – Monday, August 4th