On 27 July last, two brothers from the midlands who sexually assaulted teenage girls in the mid-1990s were identified for the first time.
John (Johnny) Owens, aged 72, with an address at Cois Abhainn, Multyfarnham, Co Westmeath, was jailed last February for eight years.
He pleaded guilty to nine counts of sexual assault of three teenage girls, Deirdre Boyhan, Sinéad Nally and Aoife O’Dwyer, on dates between July 1992 and November 1996.
He could not be identified at the time because his brother, Martin Owens, aged 66, was facing trial for sexual assaults of Deirdre Boyhan as well as her sister Lorraine Kiernan.
In April, Martin Owens of Greenville, Dublin Road, Castlepollard, Co Westmeath, pleaded guilty at the Central Criminal Court to sexually assaulting Deirdre Boyhan and Lorraine Kiernan on dates in 1994 and 1996.
In July, he pleaded guilty to four more counts of sexually assaulting Deirdre Boyhan on dates in 1994 and 1995.
He was jailed for five years.
The court heard the women were aged 14 to 17 and were babysitting when the abuse happened.
Three of the women – Deirdre Boyhan, Aoife O’Dwyer and Sinéad Nally – spoke to Midlands Correspondent Sinéad Hussey about the two predator brothers and their 30-year journey to justice.
In early May 2023, Deirdre Boyhan sat in the cathedral across from Mullingar Garda Station, clutching a bottle of Rescue Remedy.
For 30 years, she had been hiding from the past.
But something had changed within her, and she knew that this secret which she had kept buried for so long, had to be told.
“I just thought, I have to do this. I’m going to walk across the road, and I am going to tell my story, and I have to let it take its course from there,” she said.
At the counter in the public office, Ms Boyhan asked to speak to a detective and over the next few hours she recalled the horrific sexual abuse committed by Johnny and Martin Owens.
“It became overwhelming,” Ms Boyhan explained. She was working as a special needs assistant at the time and “it took me completely by surprise”.
Deirdre Boyhan, pictured aged 16, felt she ‘was trying to keep a balloon under the water’
“I was looking at these teenage kids, goofy and carefree, with not a care in the world.
“It became far more apparent to me how wrong it was, what had happened to me.
“I thought, I can’t keep this in, I felt like I was trying to keep a balloon under the water,” she said.
That May evening, inside Mullingar Garda Station, Detective Garda Adrian O’Reilly sat with Ms Boyhan and listened to her recount the abuse she had suffered.
She was just shy of 15 when the abuse began. It ended when she was 17.
“He was amazing. He sat me down and we spoke at length. He listened to my story, to what I was telling him,” Ms Boyhan said.
She added: “He [Det Gda O’Reilly] was very understanding and caring and he explained how he was going to put me in contact with the Protective Services Unit.
‘When she told me, I burst out crying’
Before reporting the abuse, Ms Boyhan had begun contacting other women who she knew had babysat for Johnny and Martin Owens.
What she didn’t know was her younger sister, Lorraine Kiernan, had also been sexually assaulted by Martin Owens.
It was only during a conversation about the abuse Ms Boyhan had suffered and her decision to go the gardaí, that she found out about Lorraine.
“I didn’t know about her until I spoke to her and told her I was going to bring this forward.
Watch: ‘It wasn’t actually my fault’ – Aoife O’Dwyer
“We hugged and we cried and we’re very close and people who know us as a family know that and I couldn’t get over this,” Ms Boyhan said.
Sinéad Nally, Ms Boyhan’s neighbour and friend, also babysat for Johnny and Martin Owens.
The women know each other all their lives and their families are close.
Suspecting she too could have been a victim, Deirdre said she invited Sinéad over for a chat and a cup of tea.
Sinéad Nally, pictured aged 16, thought the abuse only happened to her
“When she told me, I burst out crying, because I thought it only ever happened me,” Ms Nally said.
She went on to explain how she then felt guilty because she had got the job for Ms Boyhan.
“When I left and went to college Deirdre took over from me, and I felt really bad, but I thought this was only happening to me, and it wasn’t going to happen anyone else.
“You’re only a child, you don’t understand,” she sobbed.
On 9 May 2023, Aoife O’Dwyer received a message on her Facebook messenger from Ms Boyhan.
When the message appeared on her phone, she knew exactly what it was about.
“Deirdre asked me to give her a call about something sensitive, and I knew straight away,” Ms O’Dwyer said.
Becoming emotional, she explained, that like Sinéad, she thought she was the only one.
For years, the mother-of-two had kept what had happened to her buried deep within, blaming herself for the abuse.
“I developed very early; I was wearing a bra at 12. I blamed myself and I didn’t think anything happened to anyone else,” she said.
Watch: ‘Free yourself from it’ – Deirdre Boyhan
After the initial contact, it took Ms O’Dwyer some time to share her story with Ms Boyhan.
“I told Deirdre I was sorry it happened to her and that while he was a bit handsy with me, nothing had happened.
“After the call, I gathered myself and I rang my partner. When he got home from work that night, I told him about the abuse,” she said.
For around three weeks Ms O’Dwyer said she put on a brave face to the outside world but inside she was crumbling.
“For 30 years, I always thought it was me, it was my fault, it was something about me.
Sinéad Nally in another image taken when she was aged 16
“You have this secret and hope that no matter what, no one will ever find out.
“You become paranoid, you don’t like yourself, you feel disgusting. You just bury it and hope nobody will ever know,” she said.
However, after speaking with her partner and her mother, Ms O’Dwyer decided to go to gardaí.
“When I started the process and spoke with Detective Garda Aidan Hynes, I began to realise, it’s not my fault, I didn’t do anything wrong.
“We were children, we were just teenagers,” she added.
‘Kings in their own castles’
At the sentencing hearing of Johnny Owens last February, Justice Eileen Creedon said he had targeted the victims.
She said his acts were gross violations, which took place on a continuous and extremely frequent basis.
The court heard that Johnny Owens would repeatedly molest the girls whenever he got them alone.
At the sentencing hearing of Martin Owens last month, Justice Tony Hunt said that he had groomed the girls and in the case of Ms Boyhan, plied her with alcohol.
He said Martin Owens was a trusted employer in a well-known local business who had engaged in the sexual exploitation of two children who had put their trust in him.
“You do feel vindicated and that was very important for us as a group. It took us a long time to find our voice.”
He said these were not impulsive or youthful acts but were the actions of a mature person who would undoubtedly know what he was doing was wrong.
“When Johnny and Martin Owens were working and living their lives, they knew the indelible mark they had left and the untold harm they did,” Ms Boyhan said.
Looking back now she said Johnny, who was married with children, was seen as a “decent fella”.
“He didn’t drink a whole pile” and then “he’d drop us home, all the while he was trying to use us and abuse us,” she said.
Ms Boyhan added: “Johnny in particular was well got. People loved the jack the lad way he went on.
“Unfortunately, some of us knew two sides of him and it was suffocating to keep that in.
“He was far too big of a character, and his brother was the same.”
At the time of the abuse, Johnny Owens ran a successful business and provided huge employment in the area. Martin Owens, his brother, worked with him.
“This was the 1990s. There wasn’t a load of money around,” Ms Nally said.
Martin Owens was sentenced to five years in prison (pic: Westmeath Topic)
She added: “In some houses, there were a few people from the one family working there so a lot of families were depending on them.”
The women said locally the men were seen as pillars of the community, known for being hard-working and generous.
“They sponsored so many local teams, when money was needed, they did so much,” Ms O’Dwyer said.
“They were definitely sitting as kings in their own castles, they were untouchable,” Ms Boyhan said.
And so, for 30 years, the women said nothing, but all of them were struggling in their own way to deal with what happened.
When they decided to report the abuse in the summer of 2023, they knew a difficult journey lay ahead.
Women accused of ‘doing it for money’
In late 2023, Martin Owens was arrested and questioned. His brother Johnny was arrested in January 2024.
When word of this began to filter through the local community, the women said they were subjected to false accusations, intimidation and hurtful comments.
“We live in a small community, everybody knows everybody,” Ms Nally said.
The women said they were accused of “doing it for money” while others told them that because it happened 30 years ago, they should “let it go”.
“People said these men are pillars of the community and look at the employment they gave,” Ms Nally said.
“Basically, people thought because these men employed a lot of people and gave money to the GAA, they could do what they want.
“We were also told we were going to split the community over it,” she added.
Even after the men were charged, the women said they continued to deny the allegations publicly.
John Owens was jailed last February for eight years (pic: Westmeath Topic)
In the pub and in the workplace, they made light of the serious allegations they faced, the women said.
Yet Ms O’Dwyer stressed that “both Johnny and Martin Owens pleaded guilty in court”.
“All of that emotionally is crushing, absolutely crushing and you have to pick yourself up each time,” Ms Boyhan said.
She added: “But the detective said from the start, trust the process and we had to trust the process.”
Ms Boyhan said she was also questioned about why she took up a job at the business in later years.
She explained that it came about after she returned from college and she was offered the job following a chance meeting between her father, a family friend and Johnny Owens in Mullingar.
Despite her concerns, she said she “had no good reason to the outside world not to take the job”, considering she was unemployed and this was a job that was well-paid, local and in her field of studies.
“I make no apology for working up there and I don’t need to justify that; it was of its time,” Ms Boyhan said.
Waiving their right to anonymity
The women speaking to the media outside court in July
On 27 July last, the women stood on the steps outside the Courts of Criminal Justice in Dublin, after waiving their right to anonymity.
The criminal case had concluded and both men were identified.
For the first time, Ms O’Dwyer said they all felt a huge weight lifted off their shoulders.
“I always wanted it in black and white, because so many people had doubted us.
“I believed if it’s printed and it’s in ink; people can’t deny it. These men pleaded guilty to what they did, and people need to know that.”
‘So many people had doubted us’, says Aoife O’Dwyer, pictured as a teenager
Ms Boyhan said the lid had finally been lifted on the litany of abuse carried out by the brothers.
She added: “You do feel that bit lighter. I watched many, many interviews with different people over the years, who have come forward and my heart would break.
“I used to be straight back there and think, would I ever be able to speak about it?”
With the court process now behind them, the women acknowledge the long-lasting impact the abuse has had on them.
Watch: Sinéad Nally discusses impact of abuse on school life
“We survived our lives for 30 years, not lived them,” Ms O’Dwyer said.
She added: “We had to bring everything that we buried so deep down to the surface. You have to deal with it; there’s no burying it anymore.
“It affects everyone around you, you’ve to tell your family, your friends, your work colleagues and you are worried for them.”
Becoming emotional, Ms Nally said she believes her life would have been different had she not been abused.
“I built a wall around me, and no one got in. Even when it came to partners, I had awful problems.
“I still have trust issues, and I never had children because I never met anyone until I was in my 40s. My life could have been so different,” she cried.
Outpouring of support locally
The women said that since the publicity around their case, there has been an outpouring of support.
“We’ve been getting so many messages, people have sent cards and letters, some are from people we don’t even know,” Ms O’Dwyer said.
She added: “I had a woman call into me in work last week and she said she has met me every day in work for 20 years and I’m always smiling.
“She asked me, ‘how did I hide it?’ But that’s what you do.”
Ms Nally described it as putting “on a mask”.
“I’ve had girls who went to school with me come up and say that I was always in good form in school, but that was all a front,” she said.
Ms Nally added: “It’s like you overcompensate to make people think you’re really normal.
Lorraine Kiernan, who is the sister of Deirdre Boyhan, pictured at age 14
“It’s great to get the support now because we have been through the ringer with the attitude at the beginning when all this came out.”
“You do feel vindicated and that was very important for us as a group,” Ms Boyhan said.
“It took us a long time to find our voice,” she added.
The women are now urging anyone impacted by sexual abuse to seek support, and they are hoping their story will show others that justice is possible.
“We found the Dublin Rape Crisis Centre brilliant, they were there for us throughout,” Ms O’Dwyer said.
“If your case is brought forward and you end up in court, they are invaluable. We had no idea of the work they did, they have been incredible,” Ms Boyhan added.
The women said they decided to speak out, not only for themselves, but for others.
“We’re very ordinary people but this is attainable,” Ms Boyhan said.
She added: “From day one I said to the detective, I don’t have anything to lose. I came armed with the truth and that’s all we have.
“It is a slow process, and people are innocent until they are proven guilty, and we understand that.
“But if it is something that hasn’t gone away for you personally, speak to somebody, and free yourself from it.”