‘SICK MONSTER’ | 

Pervert who sexually assaulted stepdaughter (13) lied to pals about guilty verdict

We can reveal Neil Mooney WAS found guilty of sex assault by a jury at Newry Crown Court last month after putting his victim through the ordeal of having to give evidence in the witness box.

Yesterday at 20:46

This is the shameless child pervert who plied his 13-year-old stepdaughter with drink and then sexually assaulted her – but who’s telling friends he was found not guilty.

We can reveal Neil Mooney WAS found guilty of sex assault by a jury at Newry Crown Court last month after putting his victim through the ordeal of having to give evidence in the witness box.

The 38-year-old, from Hunters Hill Park, Gilford, has been telling people in the Co Armagh town that he was acquitted.

He is hiding behind a belief that the case won’t be reported on to protect the identity of his victim, who is now an adult in her mid-20s.

But his brave victim – while not wanting her name to be mentioned in the paper – has waived her right to anonymity and spoke to the Sunday World this week to set the record straight.

“I want the world to know what kind of sick monster he is,” she said.

“A lot of people are believing Neil as he’s telling people he’s not guilty. I want to help other people and let them know that it’s okay to speak out.

“From when I first came out and told the police last year, the whole town knew about it and I was made out to be a liar.

“After going through the courts and he was found guilty, it was such a relief until I discovered people still believed he was innocent which was just so, so frustrating.

“But I’ve gotten to a point now where I know the truth and he knows the truth about what happened and what he did to me. Everyone can believe what they want.

“As long as I’ve gotten it off my chest and did what I could to keep others safe, that’s all I can do.

“If I could help even one person come forward and face evil people like this, I would be happy.

“I was just so relieved the jury believed me as I was sure he would twist and manipulate them,” she explained.

“But I can get on with my life now. He tried to ruin me but he won’t win.”

Mooney was told he will have to sign the sex offenders register after he was found guilty by the jury of “intentionally touching” his stepdaughter between the 1st day of January 2013 and the 27th day of November 2015, “the circumstances being that the touching was sexual, that she did not consent to the touching and you did not reasonably believe that she so consented…”

The victim’s mum – Mooney’s former partner – also spoke to the Sunday World and described him as a “manipulative paedophile”.

“He’s a narcissistic, controlling, manipulative paedophile who abuses women and children,” she said.

“He’s a bully throughout his whole body. He was found guilty of trying to molest my daughter. She pretended to sleep but when he pulled her towards him she felt his penis and jumped out of bed.

“She was just 13 years old. He manipulated us into thinking he thought it was me he’d got into bed beside.”

Mooney faced a second charge of sexual assault, in which it was claimed in court that he had masturbated himself with her feet after plying her with alcohol.

However, the jury found him not guilty of that count. This week, Mooney was back in Newry Courthouse accused of three counts of common assault against three separate women in January 2022.

His stepdaughter says those alleged attacks took place on the same day, after the women – including her mum, sister and family friend – had confronted Mooney about the sex attacks.

“I just feel so relieved to have spoken up about it and to have him away from me and my family,” says Mooney’s stepdaughter.

“He constantly drank and fed me drink and that’s when he started acting weird and creepy around me.

“After the first incident, when I told my mum everything a few days later, he self-harmed by cutting his arms and said ‘look what you’ve done to me’.

“He actually tried to make out he was the victim and tried making me feel like it was all my fault really.

“Because of this, I never spoke up about the second incident until now because I didn’t want all that to happen again.

“He always made me out to be a liar and when I found out at the age of 18 he wasn’t my real dad, I just felt like that’s why he done this to me – because I wasn’t his. He was taking advantage of me.

“I’ve always been terrified of him but I had to act normal in front of my mum and siblings or he would’ve self-harmed and blamed me on it.

“He’s just evil and I’m so glad to have him out of my life, but unfortunately people don’t see who he is because he’s so good at his lies and manipulation.

“I don’t want anyone else having to go through this.

Mooney denied the charges throughout his trial and, much to the distress of his victim, he has continued to tell people in the local area that he was found not guilty.

But we can reveal Mooney was released on Crown Court bail until November 9. He was also subject to a restraining order, which is to “protect the victim from further conduct which amounts to harassment, or cause a fear of violence”.

However, on Wednesday his victim says she reported to the police that Mooney had been filming her as he sat in a car while she was going to the shops.

“It was early in the morning and he was filming me with his phone,” she told the Sunday World.

“He’s a total creep. How can he be allowed to do this? He thinks he can do whatever he likes and get away with it.

“I called the police straight away because he’s not allowed to intimidate me in any way due to the restraining order the judge gave him when he was found guilty of sexually assaulting me.”

According to the restraining order, seen by the Sunday World, Mooney is ordered not to threaten violence against the victim, and he is also “forbidden to intimidate, harass or pester” her.

She says she decided to tell her mother what he had done to her back in January 2022 after her mum had separated from him.

“My mother had separated from him three weeks earlier and he was out of the house, so I guessed it was safe for us all if I came clean.

“I suffered from depression because of what he had done. My depression was particularly bad and my mum knew something was wrong, so I told her on January 24.

“She asked him to come to the house so we could confront him. We had a friend with us and my mum recorded the conversation.

“He became violent and hit my mum, hit her friend and also hit my sister.” Mooney has denied all three counts of assault.

The case was mentioned briefly at Newry Magistrates Court on Wednesday and a date of November 22 has been set to hear it.

Mooney is no stranger to a courtroom, after he was convicted of a shocking case of drink driving back in 2018. Police stopped his car at 2am in Gilford as it was being driven on its rims. This was because the two front tyres were completely flat. After subsequently speaking to him, police discovered he was intoxicated.

After failing a roadside breath test, he was taken to the police station.

When he got out of the car, officers had to hold him up to prevent him from falling down.

He declined to provide a breath sample.

Mooney was banned from driving for 12 months and fined £250 for driving while unfit.

For using a car in a dangerous condition he was fined £150, ordered to pay a £15 offender’s levy and banned for six months.