WARNING DISTURBING: Emmett Baylor, 47, was found guilty of raping and sexually abusing his sister Niamh Herbert over a three year period which began when she was just six years old
Niamh Herbert speaks to the media after jury convicts brother
A woman who was raped by her brother as a child says “justice has been done” as she waived her anonymity in a bid to stop him harming others.
Emmett Baylor, 47, of Youghal, Co Cork, was found unanimously guilty last month on a number of charges, including sexual assaults, indecent assaults and oral rapes. After he was jailed following a sentencing hearing at Central Criminal Court in Cork, his sister Niamh Herbert, 41, gave a victim impact statement in which she recalled sitting outside Garda stations in 2018 “willing herself to find the courage and strength to walk inside” to report the abuse she received between the age of six and nine.
Detective Garda Yvonne Cashman said that the offences occurred when Mr Baylor was aged 13 to 16, with the rapes taking place in the latter half of that three-year period. She added that Mr Baylor lost his job at sea with Irish Lights following his conviction, reported the Irish Mirror.
Ms Herbert last week told the court: “There are no words to sum up a lifetime of damage, but I have to try. I was just a little girl when you started to abuse me and made me a victim. You trapped me for years in a cycle of fear and terror.
“Countless nights I lay in bed frozen in fear, counting footsteps, terrified of what might come next and those memories haunt me to this day. The terror didn’t stop when the sexual abuse ended. I still grieve for the childhood and youth you stole from me, for the years of innocence and joy I will never get back.
“Your abuse was calculated. You knew exactly what you were doing, and you knew it was wrong. I carried your secret for years. The shame, the blame, the unbearable weight of your crime was sat on my shoulders.”
Ms Herbert said she turned to drugs and alcohol at the age of 13 to “numb the pain and quiet the torture” in her mind. “I was angry and empty, drinking to blackout, crying myself to sleep. I would wrap my scarves around my face, put my head inside my pillowcase and hope I wouldn’t wake up in the morning,” she said.
“I often wonder what my life would have been like if I had lived in a safe and loving home, but I’ll never know. Due to your abuse I have suffered with anxiety, depression, sleep disturbances, panic attacks and sensory distress.
“From 2018 onwards, I spent many nights parked outside the Garda station, willing myself to find the courage and strength to walk inside and tell them what you had done to me.
“In the end, it wasn’t courage or strength that made me take that step. It was guilt. The crushing fear that you might be hurting other children. I knew I would never truly rest unless I spoke out. I knew I wouldn’t be able to live with myself if I didn’t.”
Ms Herbert said that Mr Baylor turned to lies and manipulation to try to gain sympathy to serve himself. “I am a grown woman now and you can’t hurt me anymore,” she added.
“I would like to thank the jury for believing me, bringing justice through a guilty verdict. I will finally have peace knowing I did everything I could to speak the truth. I hope that from this day forward, Emmet Baylor will never have the opportunity to harm another person again.”
Ms Herbert thanked all of the professionals who worked on the case, including Detective Garda Cashman. She also thanked her husband Paul, brother Martin and friends for their support, as well as the jury for believing her.
Defence senior counsel, Alice Fawsitt, said that her client was as young as 12 when the offences on which he was convicted started. She indicated that he had emotional difficulties at that time.
Mr Baylor received a character reference from his father Brendan. The court heard that Niamh and Emmet were adopted and the offending occurred at the family home in Youghal.
In sentencing, Ms Justice Siobhan Lankford said that the evidence given by Ms Herbert was compelling in nature. She said that Mr Baylor had stolen the childhood of Ms Herbert in what should have been a period of “innocence and joy”.
Ms Justice Lankford said that a larger custodial sentence would have been imposed on an adult for the same offences. However, Mr Baylor was a young teenager when a large amount of the offending behaviour occurred.
She noted that the accused had been a “useful” member of society and had no previous convictions other than for road traffic offences. Ms Justice Lankford also said she was cognisant of his “emotional immaturity” at the time, having been furnished with a report from a psychologist which dated back to his teenage years.
Ms Justice Lankford jailed Mr Baylor for two and a half years and said that there was no basis for a further reduction given the failure of the accused to accept the jury verdict. He was also placed on the sexual offenders register.
Speaking outside the court, Ms Herbert said that she felt “lighter” having received justice for the abuse that she had been subjected to by her brother.
She called on others in her position to contact Gardaí or to speak to a GP or a counsellor if unable to face reporting the matter. “Anyone who has been in my shoes or is living with it at the moment it is very difficult to take that step to come forward,” she said.
“It was always on my mind and I was waiting to build up the courage to do it. It was Youghal Garda Station. I was driving and driving and thinking about it and eventually I took that step to go and tell the guards.
“The guards will be there for you. I’d like to say to anybody if I can do it you can do it. You have everything inside of you. Speak out, tell somebody and they will listen to you. There is no limitation on crimes as heinous as these and its never to late to go. You can still get support without coming forward (to Gardaí). You deserve to live a peaceful life.”