A woman who was repeatedly sexually abused by a neighbour over six years when she was a child has been awarded €350,000 damages by the High Court.
“I’ve been heard, I’ve been vindicated. It’s a hard, long struggle to stand up for the little children we once were,” Noelle Doyle said after the court proceedings.
Ms Doyle (41) was six when Seán Connolly, a father of one of her childhood friends, began abusing her.
Mr Justice Kevin Cross described her as “an admirable person of courage who has done society a great service”.
Connolly, now in his 70s, was sentenced in 2011 to three years’ imprisonment, after he pleaded guilty at Naas Circuit Court to six sample charges of sexual assault. He lived close to Ms Doyle’s childhood home in Castledermot, Co Kildare.
