{"id":100809,"date":"2025-10-24T05:29:09","date_gmt":"2025-10-24T05:29:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/100809\/"},"modified":"2025-10-24T05:29:09","modified_gmt":"2025-10-24T05:29:09","slug":"the-damage-he-inflicted-remains-niece-of-prominent-gaa-referee-speaks-out-on-how-he-indecently-assaulted-her-as-a-child","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/100809\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018The damage he inflicted remains\u2019 \u2013 niece of prominent GAA referee speaks out on how he indecently assaulted her as a child"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"indo-ebe0ecc6_root indo-ebe0ecc6_paragraph indo-91174671_secondary indo-1d70522a_marginbottom4 indo-1d70522a_marginleft0 indo-1d70522a_marginright0 indo-1d70522a_margintop4\" style=\"color:var(--color-primary-80)\" data-testid=\"title-summary\">Thomas Howard was in charge of 1993 Derry-Cork All-Ireland final\n<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"Child sex abuser Thomas Howard leaves Tullamore Court. Photo: Steve Humphreys\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/I THOMAS HOWARD 1SH.jpg\" loading=\"eager\" width=\"100%\" data-testid=\"article-image\"  \/><\/p>\n<p class=\"indo-ebe0ecc6_root indo-ebe0ecc6_caption1 indo-300db776_none indo-91174671_secondary indo-66f0fec7_regular indo-1d70522a_marginbottom0 indo-1d70522a_marginleft0 indo-1d70522a_marginright0 indo-1d70522a_margintop3 indo-b48c4984_left\" style=\"color:var(--color-grey-60)\">Child sex abuser Thomas Howard leaves Tullamore Court. Photo: Steve Humphreys<\/p>\n<p class=\"indo-ebe0ecc6_root indo-ebe0ecc6_paragraph indo-300db776_none indo-91174671_primary indo-1d70522a_marginbottom0 indo-1d70522a_margintop0 indo-b48c4984_inherit\" style=\"color:var(--color-primary-80)\">A prominent former GAA referee has been told he can expect a prison term when he is sentenced next month for indecently assaulting his niece from when she was three or four years old until she reached puberty.<\/p>\n<p class=\"indo-ebe0ecc6_root indo-ebe0ecc6_paragraph indo-300db776_none indo-91174671_primary indo-1d70522a_marginbottom0 indo-1d70522a_margintop0 indo-b48c4984_inherit\" style=\"color:var(--color-primary-80)\">Thomas Howard (79), of Old Kilcullen, Co Kildare, appeared before Judge Sine\u00e1d McMullen for sentencing at Tullamore Circuit Court yesterday, when details were revealed of how he had manipulated and coerced Maeve Leahy in the mid-1980s and 1990s.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Thomas Howard was in charge of 1993 Derry-Cork All-Ireland final Child sex abuser Thomas Howard leaves Tullamore Court.&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":100810,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[13975,61,60,112],"class_list":{"0":"post-100809","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-sports","8":"tag-conor-feehan","9":"tag-ie","10":"tag-ireland","11":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/100809","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=100809"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/100809\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/100810"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=100809"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=100809"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=100809"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}