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Nobody Heard Me Cry
On sale
5th March 2009
Price: £7.99
Genre
John Devane was six weeks old when his father died, leaving his mother poverty-stricken and struggling to raise seven children alone. Further tragedy followed when, less than a year later, his older brother was killed in a road accident. His despairing mother turned to drink, and John’s childhood was a nightmare of neglect and beatings. At age eight, he was sexually abused for the first time, by a neighbour. Thus began a cycle of sexual abuse that lasted throughout his childhood, by numerous people from his community, including members of a tightly run Limerick paedophile ring. Later, still not yet a teenager, he was pimped on the Limerick docklands.
By the time John was 15, he was suicidally depressed. Alcoholism and years in the wilderness ensued. However, against the odds, he made a remarkable new beginning, first by joining the army, then by returning to school and later entering university, where he qualified as a solicitor. He set up a busy practice and built a reputation for defending the criminals of Limerick when nobody else would. Then, one day, the unthinkable happened, when John received a call from police. A man was up on a charge of sexual abuse of a minor, and had requested John as his defence solicitor. Now John had a choice to make. Because this man had failed to recognise this successful lawyer as the young teenage he had abused many years before.
This is the extraordinary story of a life almost destroyed by abuse, and the hard choices one man made in his fight to recover himself.
By the time John was 15, he was suicidally depressed. Alcoholism and years in the wilderness ensued. However, against the odds, he made a remarkable new beginning, first by joining the army, then by returning to school and later entering university, where he qualified as a solicitor. He set up a busy practice and built a reputation for defending the criminals of Limerick when nobody else would. Then, one day, the unthinkable happened, when John received a call from police. A man was up on a charge of sexual abuse of a minor, and had requested John as his defence solicitor. Now John had a choice to make. Because this man had failed to recognise this successful lawyer as the young teenage he had abused many years before.
This is the extraordinary story of a life almost destroyed by abuse, and the hard choices one man made in his fight to recover himself.
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