Ireland AM speaks to sexual abuse victim who kept her secret for 43 years.

For further information:

Sharon McHugh
TV3 PRESS OFFICE
+3531 419 3430 / 087 922 4143
sharon.mchugh@tv3.ie
publicity@tv3.ie

Ciara Byrne
+353 1 419 3329 / 087 3199732
ciara.byrne@tv3.ie

TV3 GROUP RELEASE                                                                               

IMMEDIATE: Thursday 8th May, 2014.

 

 

Ireland AM speaks to sexual abuse victim who kept her secret for 43 years.

 

Arleyne speaks about how she was sexually abused from the age of seven until she was sixteen by several different people, including a woman.

 

As a result of her abuse, Arleyne suffered a drug and alcohol addiction.

 

Arleyne's baby daughter tragically died from SIDS in the 1980's and she has no recollection of the last hours she spent with her as she was heavily intoxicated at the time.

 

Ireland AM airs Monday to Friday from 7am – 10.45am on TV3.

 

Click here to view Arleyne Murphy’s interview on 3Player.

 

 

In an exclusive television interview on Ireland AM, Arleyne Murphy from Donegal opens up about her years of sexual abuse as a child in a bid to encourage others to seek help instead of suffering in silence as she did. Arleyne kept her experience of sexual abuse a secret for 43 years and only opened up about her heart-wrenching story for the first time two weeks ago.

 

Arleyne speaks about how she was sexually abused from the age of seven until she was sixteen by several different people, including a woman and as a result of her abuse she suffered a drug and alcohol addiction. Speaking about the unthinkable threats made by her abusers to ensure her silence, Arleyne says: “The first person that actually abused me, his threat to me was - my dad was a great outdoors man, he was a fisherman and a hunting man, so we had guns in the house – and this guy told me, and rightly so, that my dad would have shot him and gone to jail, and it would have been all my fault that my dad was in prison.”

 

To add even more heartache to her story, Arleyne's daughter Siobhan tragically died from SIDS in the 1980's. Arleyne describes it as incredibly difficult to talk about as it was while she was in the height of her addiction and she has no recollection of the last hours she spent with her daughter despite changing and feeding her during that fateful night: “One night that I was drinking, I brought her in to bed with me and when I woke up the next morning, she had died in the night.” “The most painful part of that for me now is, I was in a blackout for the last couple of hours I spent with her.”

 

Arleyne turned 50 earlier this week and now she works with Donegal Rape Crisis.

 

For further information, please visit:  www.rapecrisishelp.ie or www.oneinfour.ie

 

Click here to view Arleyne Murphy’s interview on 3Player.

 

Ireland AM airs Monday to Friday from 7am – 10.45am on TV3.

 

Images have been sent to your picture desks

 

ENDS

 

For further information
Ciara Byrne – Press Officer – 01 419 3329/087 319 9732

Sharon McHugh – Head of Press & Publicity – 087 922 4143

publicity@tv3.ie                        
www.tv3.ie

 

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