SISTERS’ ATTACKER FURY

I feel vulnerable after rapist brother-in-law was freed and jail bosses didn’t tell me – but I won’t be driven from home

• Published: 7:00, 9 Oct 2023
• Updated: 17:51, 8 Oct 2023

TWO sisters who were raped by their brother-in-law when they were kids have slammed prison bosses after their attacker was released – and they weren’t told.

Deborah Courtney and her older sister Mary waived their right to anonymity so vile abuser Jimmy Flannery could be named.

The beast was jailed for ten years after being convicted of raping Mary in the early 1970s.

Flannery, of Baile Na Buaile, Dingle, Kerry, began molesting the kids when they were just ten but it escalated later to rape.

Now 83, he attacked his victim in a car parked near the Conor Pass and in his bedroom at Ballydavid on Kerry’s Dingle Peninsula.

He was also convicted of multiple counts of indecent assault and rape on Mary at locations in Dingle between 1969 and 1975.

Flannery never showed any remorse for his crimes, did not accept the verdict of the jury, and called the women liars.

The sisters were told by prison authorities that Flannery was appealing in 2021.

However, they heard nothing since and were not informed that he was released from prison in the past few weeks.

Deb, 61, said she found out by chance from an acquaintance that their abuser had been released for good behaviour and was back living in Dingle.

Mary, 64, is now living in New York but Deb is still living about 15km from the seaside town.

Deb said they were shocked that Flannery was set free from jail and fears she could bump into him on the street or in a shop.

She now does not visit the town because she’s scared of meeting him.

It has led to post traumatic stress disorder and she is now finding it hard to sleep.

‘I FEEL VULNERABLE’

Deb told The Irish Sun: “Mary is protected by geography living as she does in America, but she is concerned for me and my well being.

“I feel vulnerable but I can’t live the rest of my life looking over my shoulder.

“Sometimes I think if I could leave here I would but I won’t be driven from my community.

“But Flannery’s release has certainly dragged the whole ordeal we went through up again.

“We haven’t been told what the conditions of his release are – if he is to stay away from us and where I live.

“I wish someone would have contacted me and told me what he can and can’t do. It would certainly help to ease my mind.

‘VICTIMS FORGOTTEN’

“I feel like we, as victims, are the forgotten ones here.”

Flannery was found guilty by a jury of raping Mary after a five-day trial at the Central Criminal Court in 2015 and was given a 13-year sentence with three years suspended.

The previous April he was jailed for 18 months for indecently assaulting Deb.

Deb said Flannery’s sentences should be consecutive and longer because now he has his life back while they have both had life sentences imposed on them.

But she said: “We were lucky we had each other and we went together to report the abuse to the Gardai.

CASES SPLIT

“Initially the cases were to be tried together but were split after a court application.

“We are so lucky we had each other as that made us stronger and more determined to proceed, no matter what obstacles we faced.”

And she appealed to other victims of sexual abuse to report it.

Deb said: “When it was happening and afterwards I thought I must be a bad person.

“I felt so ashamed. Mary and I were groomed by Flannery physically, emotionally and sexually.