EXCLUSIVE
A SOUTH Armagh woman has waived her right to anonymity in an attempt to keep her violent rapist brother in prison to serve the remainder of his life sentence.
Rachael Liddy was abused by her brother Wayne for the majority of her childhood. When he moved to London for work in the late 1980s, she cut off all contact with him. However, in 2009 Rachael (47) opened a newspaper to see a picture of her abuser. Liddy, now 56, had been convicted in Woolwich Crown Court for raping two women and the violent indecent assault of another.
He had been caught by the Metropolitan Police’s Sapphire Cold Case unit, having been arrested two years earlier for a minor offence in Crossmaglen. Although police had obtained a sample belonging to the rapist at the time of the offences, it took almost 15 years before Liddy was caught. His DNA was taken after he was arrested for criminal damage offences in south Armagh in 2007. Officers uploaded his profile onto the UK DNA database and it was linked to one of the east London rapes. Links to three further serious sexual assaults were confirmed. He was convicted of three offences. The fourth victim withdrew her evidence, feeling unable to proceed with a trial. Liddy initially pleaded not guilty despite overwhelming forensic evidence linking him to the crimes. He changed plea at the final hour.
His first victim in October 1992 was a 35-year-old returning home to east London after a night out. He dragged her into a garage, raped her and robbed her of cash. He targeted his next victim a month later. The 22-year-old had got off a train at Manor Park station. He forced her to undress close to a block of flats and made her perform a sex act. In March 1993 he attacked a 27-year-old woman in an underground car park in Leytonstone, dragging her off to a secluded area and raping her.
Liddy was sentenced to 12 years in prison. His conviction made headlines and it was then that Rachael decided, with the support of her sister Tanya, she felt strong enough to contact the PSNI and report the horrendous abuse she had suffered at his hands.
After serving his prison sentence in England, Liddy was arrested and transferred to Northern Ireland to stand trial for the abuse of his younger sister. Because of his relationship to his victim he was granted anonymity and because of reporting restrictions his crimes have not been fully reported in Northern Ireland until now. Once again Liddy refused to accept responsibility for his crimes and subjected Rachael to a lengthy trial. The jury was dismissed several times, forcing her to repeatedly give evidence in front of her abuser.
In November 2015 Liddy was convicted of eight counts of indecent assault on his sister and eight counts of rape. The offences were specimen charges and related to a fraction of the abuse he inflicted on Rachael during her childhood. The judge imposed life imprisonment with a minimum tariff of 10 years.
However, Liddy appealed the sentence and a further hearing took place. Delivering the appeal judgment, Madam Justice McBride said she was satisfied that the series of rape counts could be categorised as “extremely grave” because Liddy subjected his sister to “gross and vile sexual acts from when she was a very young child”.
She added that the rapes represented a breach of trust and were repeated until the complainant was aged around 16 years, causing her “significant harm”. The appeal judge said she was also satisfied that it was likely there would be further offending as the applicant had already committed further offences “of a grave character”. The appeal court also referred to a report by forensic and clinical psychologist Dr Philip Pollock which expressed a clear view that Liddy was “more likely than not to commit a further sexual offence in the future”.
Nevertheless his minimum tariff was reduced from 10 years to six. Liddy will appear before the Parole Commissioners in November 2021, when he could be deemed eligible for release from Maghaberry Prison.
Rachael told The Irish News she spent her entire childhood in fear of her brother.
“I was terrified of him. It took all my strength to come forward," she said.
“The trial was a nightmare, completely retraumatising. I almost gave up on a few occasions but the fear of him being released and raping someone else kept me going.
“I am convinced there are other victims out there, either in England or back home, people who are still too afraid to come forward and I understand that completely. I am terrified that he will be released and just move somewhere he is not known and attack other women.
“It was a big decision to waive my anonymity. Speaking about this publicly isn’t something I thought I’d ever do. But how else will people know this man could be potentially walking the streets in less than a year from now?
“He was given a life sentence because he is a danger to women and children everywhere. He should be made to serve that life sentence and not be released after just six years.”
