Belfast woman Suzanne Connolly was 11 when her adoptive father John Rossi began sexually abusing her. He did so almost daily until she was 14 when after disclosing the abuse to a school friend she was taken out of her home and placed into care. Despite telling the police about the abuse and Rossi admitting his crimes in the 1980s, it took 34 years for the case to be heard. This week John Rossi was convicted of five years in prison but is likely to serve only half of that. Connolly waived her anonymity exclusively to the Irish Times in order to name her abuser and to express her belief that the judicial system is “rigged against children and enables paedophiles in their crimes”. She tells Roisin Ingle why she is hoping she can play a part in changing the system so that more predators are brought to justice and children in vulnerable situations are protected.

Also on this week’s episode, we hear from the makers of Kiss Kiss, Slap Slap, a play about rape culture in Dublin Fringe Festival.

Music: I Knew A Guy, by Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)

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