SELF-confessed child abuser Briege Meehan was last night accused of showing "a total lack of remorse" after threatening to sue anyone reporting the harrowing details of the case.
The former Sinn Fein councillor and widow of IRA commander Martin Meehan pleaded guilty at Belfast Crown Court on Wednesday to child cruelty and assault charges involving her step-daughter Mary.
Seven sexual abuse charges she faced were "left on the books" and not proceeded with.
The offences occurred between July 1979 and October 1980 when Mary, then a 10-year-old schoolgirl, and her two brothers were left in her care after her father was jailed.
However, despite her guilty pleas, the 65-year-old from Elmfield Street in Ardoyne yesterday threatened to sue for damages, making a number of bizarre claims regarding her guilt.
Mary, who yesterday revealed details of the shocking abuse, had also spoken of her relief that Meehan had finally admitted her guilt. But last night she said she was shocked that Meehan was threatening to sue.
"I'm upset that even though Briege pleaded guilty she obviously doesn't feel any remorse for what she put me through. She's still after all these years trying to deny what she has done.
"I never went out looking revenge. I never called for Briege to go to prison. I just wanted her to admit what she put me through and finally let me have some closure and peace of mind," she said.
Meehan accepts that she hit Mary over the head with a bag that contained a bottle causing a wound that required stitches.
The second assault that left Mary needing six stitches to a wound below her left eye was caused, says Briege Meehan, "by a shoe" and not a broom as the victim claims.
The Irish News has seen reports that would have been presented to the court if Meehan had not changed her plea to guilty. They document a catalogue of horrific injuries inflicted on the schoolgirl who was beaten, starved and locked in an attic room.
Social services records show that on February 21 1980 a concerned anonymous caller rang social services reporting that Mary had a black eye and that she had similar injuries in previous weeks.
A week later health professionals met to discuss the case.
However, despite this no action was taken and it would be a further eight months before the child was eventually taken into care.
A medical report from October 16 1980 showed that the schoolgirl was dangerously underweight and covered in cuts, bruises and burns on almost every inch of her body including "gashes and scrabs on her back" and severe bruising of her inner thighs.
Through her solicitor Meehan, who will return to court for sentencing next month, said yesterday: "The plea of guilty in respect of the cruelty charge was accepted by Briege Meehan on the basis that she had ill-treated Mary Meehan by forcing her to smoke cigarettes and that whilst in her care Mary Meehan had suffered emotional and physical neglect.
"A number of other allegations had been made by Mary Meehan against Briege Meehan. These allegations were all denied and continue to be denied.
"These include that Mary Meehan was:
? starved, malnourished or made to eat rotten food;
? was ordered to stand naked at the foot of her bed all night;
? was ever forced to stay in a dog kennel or sleep in a dog kennel;
? that she cut the victim's hair with a razor blade.
"In the circumstances we are writing to ask you to make a full and public retraction of the defamatory allegations made against our client... Should you fail to retract the allegations please be advised that we shall initiate proceedings against you."