A woman who was raped and abused by her brother who is six years older than her at the family home in Youghal eventually got the courage to report it to gardaí so that he would not hurt anyone else in the future.
On Wednesday, Niamh Herbert recalled sitting in her car outside garda stations trying to find the courage to report what had happened to her from the age of six at the hands of her brother Emmett Baylor.
Detective Garda Yvonne Cashman said sexual assaults and rapes were carried out on occasions when she was aged from six to nine, and he was 13 to 16, the age difference between brother and sister being just over six years. The rapes occurred in the latter part of this three-year period.
They were both adopted. Their father Brendan Baylor gave a character reference for his son at Wednesday’s sentencing hearing.
Det. Garda Cashman said Emmett Baylor, aged 47, worked with Irish Lights, four weeks at sea, four weeks off, but had lost his job as a result of this case. He is not married and does not have children.
Defence senior counsel, Alice Fawsitt, said the defendant was as young as 12 when the offences on which he was convicted commenced and had emotional difficulties at that time. She said he was about to be promoted by Irish Lights but lost his job.
She said he has no alcohol or addiction issues and he did not accept the guilty verdict of the jury. She asked for as much leniency as possible.
Niamh Herbert presented her own victim evidence from the witness box: “Standing here today and giving this statement is personal and painful. I was just a little girl when you started to abuse me, and made me a victim.
“You trapped me for years in a cycle of fear and terror. Countless nights I lay in bed frozen in fear, counting footsteps, terrified of what might come next and those memories haunt me to this day.
“The terror didn’t stop when the sexual abuse ended. I still grieve for the childhood and youth you stole from me, for the years of innocence and joy I will never get back.
Your abuse was calculated. You knew exactly what you were doing, and you knew it was wrong.
“I carried your secret for years. The shame, the blame, the unbearable weight of your crime was sat on my shoulders.
“At just 13 years old, I turned to drugs and alcohol to numb the pain and quiet the torture in my mind. I was angry and empty, drinking to blackout, crying myself to sleep. I would wrap my scarves around my face, put my head inside my pillowcase and hope I wouldn’t wake up in the morning.
“I often wonder what my life would have been like if I had lived in a safe and loving home, but I’ll never know. Due to your abuse I have suffered with anxiety, depression, sleep disturbances, panic attacks, and sensory distress. I have to take mental health medication and sleeping tablets. I will need to take them for the rest of my life.
“From 2018 onwards I spent many nights parked outside the garda station, willing myself to find the courage and strength to walk inside and tell them what you had done to me. In the end, it wasn’t courage or strength that made me take that step. It was guilt.
The crushing fear that you might be hurting other children. I knew I would never truly rest unless I spoke out. I knew I wouldn’t be able to live with myself if I didn’t.
“You prey on people’s vulnerability and fear. When that doesn’t work, you turn to lies and manipulation, trying to gain sympathy to serve yourself. I am a grown woman now and you can’t hurt me anymore.
“I would like to thank the jury for believing me, bringing justice through a guilty verdict. I will finally have peace knowing I did everything I could to speak the truth. I hope that from this day forward Emmett Baylor will never have the opportunity to harm another person again.
“I want to acknowledge all of the professionals who worked on this case inside and outside the courtroom, especially Detective Garda Yvonne Cashman. I’m forever grateful to the family that stood by and supported me through it all; My husband Paul, my brother Martin, Norma and Sarah. To my dear friends also, you know who you are.”
Det. Garda Cashman outlined the background to the case that Ms Justice Siobhán Lankford and a jury heard last month at the Central Criminal Court sitting in Cork. The jury returned unanimous guilty verdicts against Emmett Baylor of Hilltop, Youghal, County Cork, on a number of charges including sexual/indecent assaults and oral rapes.
“Emmett Baylor indecently assaulted her at the family home in Youghal. On five separate occasions when she was in bed he got into her bed, underneath the covers, put her hand on his penis and masturbated himself… He sexually assaulted her in the living room. There were five oral rapes where he put his penis in her mouth when she was crying,” Det. Garda Cashman testified.
Ms Justice Lankford said there was a lot to take into consideration before imposing sentence and she adjourned finalisation until 2pm on July 30 at the Central Criminal Court sitting in Cork. Emmett Baylor was remanded in custody until then.
Ms Herbert waived her right to anonymity. Prosecution senior counsel Ray Boland referred to a recent Supreme Court case and said there was no legal prohibition to identifying Emmett Baylor.
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