Kevin Meehan and Briege Meehan
Kevin Meehan below is a Fantasist who has posted on the internet about 'pedophiles', yet he has failed to post on the crimes of Briege Meehan, too close for comfort I suppose?
The sentencing of a
former Sinn Féin Councillor who pleaded guilty to child cruelty charges has
been adjourned until Friday.
Kevin Meehan, Cookstown, County Tyrone, Fantasist
Opening the prosecution
case, QC Frank O'Donoghue recounted how Briege Meehan, 65, carried out a number
of acts of cruelty against stepdaughter Mary Meehan over a 15-month period.
Between 14 July 14 1979
and October the following year, he told the court Meehan hit the youngster on
the head with a glass baby's bottle, forced her to smoke numerous cigarettes as
a punishment and also to sleep in her urine-soaked bed.
Last month before her
trial began Meehan, from Elmfield Street and the widow of the IRA's former
north Belfast commander Martin Meehan, pleaded guilty to charges of assault and
cruelty towards her stepdaughter Mary when she was ten years old.
She had also been
charged with seven charges of sexually abusing her stepdaughter but those were
"left on the books" after she pleaded guilty to charges on an amended
indictment.
At the time of the
offences, the court heard, Martin Meehan was either in custody or on the run
leaving Briege Meehan, who was eight months pregnant at the time, to look after
his three children.
Mr O'Donoghue said the
first count of assault related to an incident when Mary was tidying up a unit
but was not doing it quickly enough so her stepmother hit her over the head
with a glass baby bottle, knocking her unconscious.
The lawyer recounted
Mary's statement in court where she described being "covered in blood"
and "screaming" in panic.
Mr O'Donoghue said Mary
was at one time caught smoking so by way of punishment or deterrence, Briege
Meehan forced the child to smoke an unknown number of cigarettes, adding that
that incident related to a count of child cruelty while another count accused
her of injuring her either with a brush shaft or a shoe.
He told the court how
Mary suffered from instances of bed wetting but that her stepmother
"forced her to sleep on the wet sheets".
The lawyer said the
child was eventually rescued by Social Services and placed into care in October
1980 and a medical examination revealed 20 bruises sustained while in the care
of Briege Meehan.
The offences were
committed while Meehan, was the then girlfriend of Martin Meehan while he was
on remand in prison on IRA kidnapping charges for which he was eventually
jailed for 12 years.
Mr Meehan, who died in
2007, was also the first person to be convicted of membership of the
Provisional IRA.
His second wife,
Briege, elected as Newtownabbey's first Sinn Féin councillor in 2001 and again
in 2005 was suspended from the post after the allegations of abuse first
surfaced in February 2009.
Defence QC Karen
Quinlivan argued that whilst it was a serious matter, the level of physical
abuse was "at the lower end of the scale" for which Meehan had been
widely criticised in the media and her own community.
She said that Meehan
had "expressed remorse" for the way she treated her stepdaughter but
added that the care of all three children came about "quite abruptly"
when Martin Meehan senior was put into jail and she was left filling the shoes
of their mother who had tragically died from cancer.
In addition, claimed
the lawyer, there was widespread disapproval from all side of hers and Martin
Meehan's family over their relationship because she was married at the time.
Releasing Meehan on
continuing bail, Judge Gordon Kerr QC said he would review all the papers in
the case and pass sentence on Friday.
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