Michael Byrne was caged for his sick sex crimes
Cormac Walsh expressed his relief after his abuser Michael Byrne was sentenced
SILENT VICTIMS of paedophile band leader Michael Byrne watched this week as he was jailed for the abuse of the brave whistleblower who spoke out to end his reign of terror.
Evil Byrne, from Templerainey, Arklow, Co. Wicklow, was jailed by Wicklow Circuit Court for four years for the systematic abuse of Cormac Walsh from the age of 11 to 15.
But unknown to many observers, the packed courtroom included several victims whose stories of similar abuse never got told for many different reasons.
At least four other childhood victims of Michael Byrne attended, or were represented by relatives at the sentencing hearing, the Sunday World can reveal.
For different reasons their cases against the prolific paedophile did not end up before the courts.
“I know loads of people he abused,” one man told the Sunday World on the conclusion of the case.
“He’s so evil. He abused my brother and then he tried to pin it on me. You can actually pick the men out in Arklow who were in the band as children, whose lives just fell apart because of him. The DPP doesn’t always decide to prosecute. And in other cases he bought himself out of charges over the years.”
Another man spoke about the horror his family had endured.
“My two sons were in the band,” he said. “One of them suffers very badly still.”
Byrne, a secondary school teacher who also ran the boys’ brass band in Arklow, had unfettered access to children for over 40 years, despite six previous convictions for indecency dating back to the early 1970s.
“The abuse was cold, calculating, premeditated,” Judge Michael O’Shea said. “It was systematic abuse. It was revolting, disgusting, horrific, embarrassing and humiliating.”
Byrne (76), worked in secondary schools in Rush, Co. Dublin and Wicklow town.
Courageous Cormac Walsh was just eight years old when the grooming began. “Sexual abuse is a crime that thrives on secrecy and shame,” he said in an emotional victim impact statement. “For this reason my family decided to allow our identity to be made public.”
After numerous court delays, Byrne pleaded guilty to four sample counts of indecency committed between January 1975 and March 1978. He had previously received a six-month suspended sentence for indecency in 1973.
Reacting to the verdict Cormac said: “I’m delighted, overwhelmed… it’s given a sense of closure.”