Paedophile's victim gives her side of the story
Wednesday, 12 November 2008
By Paul Higgins.
THE VICTIM of a Ballyclare newsagent who is now a convicted paedophile revealed this week that she was harangued, abused and spat at by people in the town who were convinced he was innocent.
Speaking after 68-year-old Thomas Ronald Smyth was jailed for three and a half years, his 20-year-old victim and her father have hit out at people in the town who signed a petition Mr Smyth ran in his shop proclaiming his innocence and those who doubted her, labelling her a money-grabbing liar.
She said: "I never expected anybody to just believe me but I didn't expect them to go so far against me and hurt me in the way they did or to go to the lengths that they did instead of keeping an open mind . It doesn't anger me but it's just hurtful."
Smyth, who was also ordered to sign the police sex offenders register for the rest of his life, was once considered to be a pillar of the community in the town having owned and run 'Ronnie's' shop for close to 40 years but since he pleaded guilty, he has had his home attacked.
In a message directed at her doubters, his victim declared: "To the people who signed that petition and supported Ronnie Smyth, they're lucky that it didn't happen to anyone close to them and I just hope I was the only one."
Echoing her sentiments her father said that the "gutless, faceless" people who "cruelly pilloried" his daughter have yet to come to either of them to say sorry. He added: "She's taken a paedophile off the streets of Ballyclare and the truth has come out. The people in this town will have to ask themselves why they haven't apologised."
Last month Smyth, from Clare Heights in Ballyclare was jailed at Belfast Crown Court after he pleaded guilty to seven charges of indecent assault and one of committing an act of gross indecency with a child on dates between October 1997 and October 1999 when his young victim was aged around nine to 10-years-old.
His Honour Judge Philip Babington, who banned Smyth from having contact with female children, going near "children centred facilities" and from holding a job which would bring him into contact with kids, had heard that the primary school pupil was subjected to over a hundred incidents of abuse by Smyth in the storeroom of the newsagents he used to own in Ollardale Park.
Prosecuting lawyer Andrew Crawford told him the girl had been working in his shop doing a paper round and making 10p mix-up bags when Smyth began to touch her inappropriately and that afterwards, "he gave her sweets and told her not to tell anyone" or they would both get into trouble.
He said that Smyth also threatened the girl that he would tell her parents if she did not come back in an effort to manipulate her into silence.
He said that afterwards Smyth told the girl to pick a bar of chocolate, "gave her a pound or two out of the till" and told her not to tell anyone.
Arrested and interviewed in July 2007, Smyth admitted the girl had helped in the shop but claimed he told her not to come back because she was stealing cigarettes and because she played an adult pornographic video in the storeroom.
His guilty pleas only came late in the day, just before a jury was due to be sworn to hear evidence in his trial but despite that, his victim is thankful she did not have to relive her nightmare ordeal by giving evidence.
Says his victim: "I would've preferred not to have given evidence because I would not want to go through it all again and if he had been convicted, it would have let the small-minded people in the town say the jury were wrong, that he had done nothing wrong but it came straight from the horse's mouth!
“He admitted 'yes, I'm guilty' to not just one or two charges but to all eight and still people have doubt in their minds - how?"
The 20-year-old was told that during his interviews with the probation service, Smyth called her a 'lying wee bitch' but in making his plea in mitigation, defence QC Ken McMahon sought to convince the judge that Smyth now accepts everything which was alleged against him is completely accurate and true.
In the time between Smyth's arrest and his guilty pleas being entered at Belfast Crown Court, his victim says she was verbally abused and spat on in the street in front of her young children, had people slowing down in their cars, beeping their horns and opening their windows to hurl abuse at her.
Even after he pleaded guilty and admitted to sexually molesting her, one woman still accused her of "being in it for the money" but in stark contrast to the allegations of greed, the proceeds from her story are being donated to the Dakota Clarke "help me see" appeal.
Family and friends of the Newtownabbey toddler have been dedicating themselves to raising the £30,000 (pounds) needed to send two-year-old Dakota to China for a series of stem-cell injections which will help her see for the very first time.
It was in the period after Smyth pleaded guilty but before he was sentenced that his detached bungalow was subjected to an attack with petrol and paint bombs.
As well as windows being smashed, severe fire and smoke damage was caused to one portion of the house while Smyth himself received minor burns trying to put the fire out.
While his victim would not be drawn to comment on the attack, he father says while he would not condemn it "I couldn't care less what happens to him because of what he put my daughter through".
He continues: "I don't feel sorry for him in anyway. I have no sympathy for him at all because he was prepared to put my daughter through sheer hell but I couldn't do anything like that."
However, the petrol bomb attack was not the first incident of intimidation related to this horrendous case.
Shortly after the sickening allegations were put to Smyth, an 84-year-old man who was supporting the victim received a threatening letter stating that if the accusations did not stop "there would be serious trouble".
That letter has since been handed into the police for examination.
Understandably her father says when he first heard of the abuse his daughter suffered at Smyth's hands he felt an "overwhelming rage" and that "nothing would have given me greater pleasure than to take out my own summary justice on him but I had to keep my own counsel on this - my daughter needed closure.
“I would appeal for any parents that no matter how angry you get, you must let due process takes it's course, let it go through the legal system because it gives closure to the person whose been abused and takes the abuser out of circulation."
During the sentencing hearing the court heard that in reports compiled on Smyth's victim, she was described as an intelligent and resilient woman but she reveals that before she reported her ordeal to the police, "I nearly took my own life because I didn't have closure".
“I didn't realise what a weight it was off my shoulders until I actually got it out and it's an awful, awful thing to have to carry," says the 20-year-old who urges other victims of abuse to come forward.
“If there are others, they should definitely come forward. I would be willing to speak to them if they wanted to, if that would help them in anyway."
Even after Smyth pleaded guilty and admitted to sexually molesting his victim, one woman still accused her of "being in it for the money" but in stark contrast to the allegations of greed, the proceeds from her story are being donated to the Dakota Clarke "help me see" appeal.
Family and friends of the Newtownabbey toddler have been dedicating themselves to raising the £30,000 (pounds) needed to send two-year-old Dakota to China for a series of stem-cell injections which will help her see for the very first time.
Donations to the Dakota Clarke appeal can be made at www.babydakota.org or lodgements can also be made, at any bank, to account number 10023681, sort code 98-02-80.
