A former IRA member who was convicted of raping two teenage boys while hiding out in a republican safe house is due to be released from prison next week.
Seamus Marley (52) was jailed for seven years in May 2019 after a jury at the Central Criminal Court found him guilty of eight counts of sexual assault and rape of the two boys in Co Louth on dates in the early 1990s.
The Irish Independent has learnt that the paedophile will be released on June 25. The authorities have been informed he will be living in the Donnybrook area of Dublin 4.
Prison sources have revealed that the former IRA man has “served the maximum possible length” of his sentence after refusing to engage with therapeutic services for sex offenders to prevent reoffending. He continues to protest his innocence.
Since his conviction, Marley, a member of a once-prominent Belfast republican family, made a number of unsuccessful applications to the Court of Criminal Appeal seeking to have the convictions overturned.
He claimed that he was the victim of a miscarriage of justice and a wide-ranging conspiracy involving, among others, his two victims and the gardaí who investigated the case.
The rapist alleged the plot included the Spanish national police, who arrested him in Madrid in 2017 on foot of an extradition warrant to face trial for the sex crimes in Ireland.
After his release, he will be subject to a supervision order for two years and his name has been added to the sex offenders register.
In an exclusive interview, Paudie McGahon, one of Marley’s victims, has expressed “serious concerns” that the rapist still poses a threat to children and said Sinn Féin “must now explain” why the party covered up the scandal when it first came to light over 20 years ago.
The 49-year-old father of three said that he and the second man were “horrified” to discover that after they made the abuse allegations known at the “highest levels” of Sinn Féin in 2002, the party “knowingly” placed vulnerable children at risk by not reporting the paedophile to the authorities.
At the time of the revelation, Marley, who was still a member of the republican movement, was working with autistic children in Dublin and continued in that role for another two years.
“The probation services and the gardaí must keep a close eye on Marley because I absolutely believe that he is still a danger to children,” Mr McGahon, who waived his anonymity to speak out on behalf of himself and the second victim, said.
“Despite what he did to me and the other victim, and the fact that the jury had no doubt that Marley was guilty as charged, the authorities have informed us that he has never sought therapy or admitted his guilt or shown any kind of remorse – he is in complete denial.”
The abuse of the two men began in 1991 when Marley, then in his early 20s, was hiding out from police in the McGahon family home in Dunleer, Co Louth.
Mr McGahon told the court his father, Jack McGahon, a staunch republican supporter, allowed the family home to be used as a safe house for republican terrorists on the run from the police.
When the abuse took place he was 17 and the second victim was 15. The offences took place over a prolonged period and included sexual assault and rape.
Marley threatened Mr McGahon that his body would “be found on a border road” if he ever spoke out about the abuse.
When Mr Justice Paul McDermott sentenced Marley to seven years in jail, he said the terrorist had used his standing in the republican movement, which was “well capable of clandestine killings” to silence his victims.
Survivor Paudie McGahon waived his anonymity to speak out on behalf of himself and the second victim. Photo: Frank McGrath
The conviction of the paedophile was hugely embarrassing for Sinn Féin.
It came a short time after Máiría Cahill – a niece of former IRA boss Joe Cahill – revealed that she had been repeatedly abused by a senior IRA man, which was also covered up.
In republican circles, Marley was considered to be from “Provo royalty” because his father Larry, a prominent IRA commander who was very close to Gerry Adams, helped mastermind the 1983 mass escape of republican inmates from the Maze prison. He was subsequently murdered by the UVF in 1987.
Mr McGahon first broke his silence about the scandal and the subsequent cover-up in 2015 when he spoke to the Irish Independent.
He said Sinn Féin “still has very serious questions to answer” about how the organisation tried to prevent him and the other victim going to gardaí.
“The truth is that I was raped in my own home by a member of the republican movement when I was a child and then they tried to cover it up,” he said.
“The truth was covered up from the top to the bottom of the organisation and involved both Sinn Féin and the IRA, which are basically all the one.
“When myself and the other victim told a Sinn Féin member what had happened to us in 2002, the IRA staged a kangaroo court in my home, which was identical to the one Máiría Cahill was put through after she was repeatedly abused by a senior Belfast Provo.
“The man in charge was the same Sinn Féin and IRA member who presided over Máiría’s so-called court, which was all designed to keep us quiet.”
Following the inquiry, the senior member of the IRA Army Council reassured the men that Marley had been found “guilty” and gave them a choice of three punishments. They said Marley could be shot dead, beaten up or exiled. The victims opted for him to be exiled.
But it was only after Marley’s sentencing hearing in May 2019 that the two victims discovered that Marley continued to work with autistic children for another two years after he was “exiled”.
They also learnt Marley later worked as an English teacher in Asia and Spain.
“We were shocked and disgusted when we heard that,” he said.
“It shows that they [Sinn Féin and the IRA] are only concerned with protecting the movement and have no respect for the law of this country. The party, which I was once a member of, has never explained what it did.”
Mr McGahon also revealed that in the years since he waived his anonymity, he has been regularly subjected to verbal abuse by republican supporters on the streets of Ardee and in local pubs.
“The majority of the people are very understanding and sympathetic but a small group of Sinn Féin supporters often hurl abuse at me on the street – it matters more to them that I spoke out against the organisation,” he said.
“They don’t care that two teenagers were raped and abused and that the crime was then covered up.”
A Sinn Féin spokesperson said: “Sinn Féin welcomed the fact that the perpetrator was brought to justice for these dreadful crimes in 2019.
“No one in Sinn Féin tried to prevent the abuse suffered by the victims being reported to An Garda Síochána. On the contrary, one of the victims acknowledged publicly that he was advised to go to the gardaí by the elected representatives that he met over two decades ago.”
by heresmewhaa
5 comments
Grim as fuck. Dirty bastard, same for those who tried to hush it.
Typical SF/IRA murder gang trying to cover it up. No doubt this sub will have some excuse for it.
What a lovely party
Just like a political party. Covering up all their filth
Why people in the south shout about ‘The Irish government system is bad’ and then vote FF and Fine Gael for the 100th time is beyond me.
Even as this stuff happens