INSPIRATION | 

Stepdaughter of paedo Davy Tweed ‘beaming with pride’ as book hits shelves

Amanda Brown hit the headlines two years ago, when she spoke out publicly following Tweed’s death

Hugh Jordan

Today at 12:34

Amanda Brown – the stepdaughter of deceased Irish rugby international Davy Tweed – has written a book about the years of sexual abuse he subjected her to as a child.

The 43 year-old mum of one, hit the headlines two years ago, when she spoke out publicly following Tweed’s death in a motorcycle accident in north Antrim.

The hard-line unionist politician and former Irish rugby star, lost control of his motorbike while approaching a junction, near Dunseverick in Co. Antrim.

A former member of Ian Paisley’s DUP and later an elected Councillor with Jim Allister’s TUV party, 62 year-old Tweed’s public life after his rugby career ended, was seldom far from controversy.

As a politician, Tweed came to prominence during the Drumcree crisis. And he was a regularly appeared at loyalist protests outside a Catholic Church in Harryville, Ballymena.

When a Catholic priest walked through a baying loyalist crowd to say Mass at the Church, Tweed was heard to shout; “Here comes a paedophile!”

In 2009, Tweed appeared in court on child sex abuse charges, for which he was acquitted.

But three years later, in 2012, railway inspector Tweed, was convicted on 13 counts of gross indecency, indecent assault of two young girls and inciting gross indecency, spanning an eight year period.

At the time, Amanda Brown gave evidence against her stepfather and he was jailed for eight years.

Four years later though – following a successful appeal against conviction -Tweed walked free when the Appeal Court agreed that the trial judge hadn’t fully briefed the jury on the so-called ‘Bad Character’ clause.

At the time of his death in October 2021, Tweed received fulsome praise from his former political allies Ian Paisley MP and TUV leader Jim Allister.

But following a series of articles in the Sunday World, where Amanda Brown and Tweed’s four daughters revealed the sexual abuse Tweed subjected them to as children, politicians Paisley and Allister were compelled to apologise to the women.

Amanda Brown’s book No Peace Until He’s Dead – My Story of Child Abuse at the the Hands of Davy Tweed and My Journey to Recovery is due for publication soon by the Dublin-based Irish Academic Press.

At the moment it is available for pre-publication order from Irish Academic Press and Amazon.

Last night, Amanda Brown told the Sunday World: “To say I’m absolutely beaming with pride is an understatement.

“I have so many feelings running through my head at the moment. But I want to thank all the people who believed in me and encouraged me along the way.” she said.

And Amanda added: “I’m also proud of my little self.”