GAA ref sex abuse uncle was at my wedding

Niece Maeve reveals how fiend who assaulted her ‘broke her wall of trust’

- BY CATHAL RYAN

A WOMAN abused by her GAA ref uncle-in-law when she was a child has told how he turned up at her wedding.

Former GAA referee Thomas Howard has been handed a prison sentence of over six years for indecently assaulting his niece when she was just three or four years old until she reached puberty.

Brave Maeve Leahy waived her right to anonymity so her uncle-in-law, Thomas Howard, could be named.

Ms Leahy told how she feels like she received justice with the sentence, and hoped that her coming forward could help others to speak out about suffering from abuse.

The 79-year-old former GAA referee was sentenced to six years and nine months in prison on Thursday after pleading guilty to a litany of offences from the mid-80s, including indecently assaulting Maeve and coercing her into sexual contact from three or four years of age until she reached puberty.

Some of the assaults are understood to have taken place at a time when Howard was working as a GAA referee.