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High Court awards woman €160,000 against brother who regularly sexually abused her as a child

Michelle Swords said abuse stopped at age 11, when she learned in sex education class that what Kenneth Cooke (61) had done to her was wrong

Ms Justice Emily Egan in the High Court said Michelle Swords had suffered 'a very grave breach of trust by someone who should have been protecting her'.

Tue May 14 2024 - 19:30

A woman has been awarded €160,000 by the High Court against her brother, who sexually abused her four or five times a week for five years as a child in the family home.

Michelle Swords said the abuse stopped at age 11, when she learned in sex education class in school that what Kenneth Cooke had done was wrong. She said what she had learned was “like a bolt of lightning”, and that that night she told Cooke – who is due for release in 14 months from a nine-year jail sentence imposed on him for indecent assaults – to stop.

“That very night he came in and said ‘Take off your knickers’ was the first time I said ‘No’.

“He said what do you mean by ‘No’, and I said ‘What you are doing is wrong, and brothers don’t do that to sisters’ and he never went near me again.”

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Ms Swords, who was the youngest of eight children who lived at Limekiln Green, Walkinstown, Dublin, sued Cooke (61) for damages for the abuse.

She was represented by Conor Rubalcava BL and Feargal White of Coughlan White Solicitors, who obtained judgment against him last year in default of an appearance. The case came before the High Court on Tuesday for assessment of damages.

She told the court Cooke was 13 years older than her, and that the abuse had started when she was aged seven after she was moved into a bunk bed in the same room with him, after one of their brothers sustained a serious head injury in a road traffic incident.

She did not know at the time that what he was doing was wrong. “He was my big brother and I trusted him, and he warned me not to say anything, and gave me sweets and money.”

She said the abuse was “so regular it was like you were having your dinner”.

He had taken advantage of times when their mother was out, she said, as her mother often had to take their father to hospital for appointments due to his health issue. He would leave the door ajar so that he could hear his mother coming up the stairs.

Even after she moved into another bedroom, after one of her sisters moved out and got married, the abuse continued and escalated to attempts at penetration. When she called out and said she was sore, he would stop. This would usually occur on Saturday nights when he came home drunk, and the other sister who shared the bedroom was out, she said.

After Ms Swords learned in school that what her brother was doing was wrong, she said he just “acted normal, and there was no suspicion among anyone”.

The abuse occurred between 1983 and 1987, and Ms Swords moved out in 2002 and later got married and had two children.

In 2010 she told a family member. In 2011, at a family event, she told Cooke’s own wife, who she said believed her. When Cooke arrived and she confronted him, she said he at first verbally abused her before then trying to “put out his hand saying he was sorry”.

In 2012, after she complained to the Garda, Cooke was interviewed, and in 2014 he pleaded not guilty to 16 counts of indecent assault but was found guilty by a jury and sentenced to nine years. He subsequently received another nine-year sentence, to run consecutive to the 2014 sentence, for sexual assaults on a male and a concurrent eight-year sentence for sexual assault on another male.

Ms Swords said that after she had him “named and shamed” following the trial, she had received no support from the rest of her family, and has not had a proper relationship with them for some time.

The court heard that as a result of the abuse, she suffered severe depression and had self-harmed.

Ms Justice Emily Egan said she had suffered “a very grave breach of trust by someone who should have been protecting her”.

In awarding €160,000 to Ms Swords against Cooke, the judge said she had shown great courage and resilience and that in the last couple of years her situation had improved. She wished Ms Swords well.

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