A WOMAN WHO was regularly raped by her brother-in-law has said the abuse meant that she never got the chance to grow into the person she was meant to be and she is now constantly fighting to stay alive.

Eunan Merritt (56) of Crossroads, Killygordon, Donegal, was convicted by a jury following an 11-day trial at the Central Criminal Court.

He was found guilty of eight charges of rape, four charges of oral rape and two charges of sexual assault against Cheryl Laverty (now 43) on dates between June 1999 and September 2003. He had denied the charges and does not accept the verdict of the jury.

The abuse began when the victim was 16 years old and ended when she was 21 years old.

Patricia McLaughlin, prosecuting, told judge Kerida Naidoo that the victim wishes to waive her anonymity in the case.

Naidoo sentenced Merritt to 12 years in prison with the final six months suspended.

He noted that the victim spoke in her victim impact statement of how Merritt “took her life and destroyed her future”.

Naidoo said Merritt had exploited the woman’s vulnerability and had abused her over an extended period of time.

He acknowledged that he had answered questions put to him by gardaí following his arrest but he said this “limited co-operation did not amount to mitigation”.

“The fact that the offending occurred over a number of years means that he is not a person of general good character,” Naidoo said, while acknowledging that there were a number of testimonials before the court on behalf of Merritt.

He accepted that these testimonials described Merritt as a good father and a support to his family, extended family and people in his local community.

Naidoo said it is normal in such cases for accused people to “show one face to their victims, while presenting an entirely different one to those that he is close to and the public in large”.

He accepted that Merritt will be spending a large proportion of the rest of his life in prison and that his risk of re-offending is low, before he suspended the final six months of a 12-year-term on strict conditions for 18 months.

The victim read her victim impact statement into the record. She said that she has been trying to rebuild her life and that the abuse impacts her daily activities.

“It is something I live with every day – it did not end when the abuse stopped,” she said, adding that she “has to live in survival mode with her body braced for danger”.

“I never had the chance to grow into the person I was meant to be. Never got to meet the person I was going to be,” the woman continued before she said that the abuse “followed me” into her relationships and her parenting.

She outlined numerous admissions into a psychiatric hospital and said she did eventually explain to her children that “years of trauma and rape had made (her) a vulnerable person”.

The victim said there was “emotional distance” in her relationships – “not because of lack of love but because of the damage caused to me”.

She said she is fighting to stay alive because of the abuse she has suffered and said she tells her children that this is “not because I don’t love them or their Daddy – it is the pain of the rapes”.

“I am living with the version of me that was left behind after the rape. The abuse did not just harm the girl I was – it shaped the woman I have become,” the woman said.

She told Merritt that she was “easy to use, easy to silence, easy to shame”. “But I am handing that shame back to you,” she concluded.

McLaughlin told the court that the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) has put the case in the more serious category warranting a headline sentence of 10 to 15 years.

Dara Foynes, defending, said her client is “a man of good character with a good work record” before she handed in multiple references into court including from his sister, his daughter, a close friend, his neighbour and his employer.

Counsel said Merritt has a number of medical issues and that he is the sole provider for his family. He has three daughters.

Foynes confirmed that her client does not accept the verdicts of the jury.

The garda told the court that the victim has had multiple admissions into psychiatric care and her sister is standing by Merritt.

‘Place of safety’

The investigating garda, Rosarie Monagle, told the court that Merritt is married to the victim’s older sister and she would have spent a lot of her time at their house because she felt it was “her place of safety”.

She later told gardaí she knew the man all her life and said he was like a brother to her. She would regularly babysit for the couple and he taught her how to drive.

The woman told gardaí that she made it clear she was not consenting to sexual activity with Merritt – “with both her words and her actions; she would be upset and crying”.

She recalled incidences of rape, after he took her out in his car, and incident one St Patrick’s Day, when he unfastened her bra in a pub before offering to give her a lift home. On the way home, he pulled into a quarry and raped her.

At one point she told Merritt she was going to tell her boyfriend what was going on, but he replied “That prick won’t do anything about it”.

She said she felt like this was destined to be her life – referring to being raped by Merritt.

He also raped her after calling into her own home later when she was alone with her baby.

On one of those occasions, he threw her onto the couch and raped her after pinning her down. The baby was in the same room as them at the time.

Another time he raped her in her home while the baby was napping. On a further occasion she tried to prevent him getting into her home by attempting to close the door on him but he managed to get into the house, threw her on the couch and raped her. Her child was also there the final time he raped her in her home.

The investigating garda said it was at this point that the woman decided she would never be raped by Merritt again.

She told Merritt he was hurting her and ruining her life, but he replied that she did not have a life.

The woman first made a complaint to garda in 2006 but she didn’t follow up on it. She re-engaged again in 2018 and made a total of 16 statements between April 2018 and November 2020.

Merritt was arrested in September 2021 but made no comment during interview. He later claimed that anything which happened between them was consensual.