Alan Murphy and his partner Kelly Gilsenan at their home in Clondalkin
Took victim almost 30 years to get the courage to report abuse
ABUSED weekly by his cousin when he was a young child, it took Alan Murphy nearly 30 years to pluck up the courage to report it to gardai.
However, despite reporting the abuse in 2018, nothing seemed to be happening. It was only when his cousin Darren Dowling started to stack up convictions in Jersey that Alan’s case was finally heard in Dublin.
Mr Murphy (38) waived his anonymity to have Dowling named and took to the stand last year during the two-week trial.
Dowling (48) was extradited to Ireland to face trial from Jersey in the Channel Islands where he had been convicted and jailed over indecent messages about abusing children.
The court heard Dowling has three previous convictions, all from Jersey, including one where he exchanged messages with an undercover policeman, in which he sent a picture of himself holding a 10-month-old child on his knee, and referring to how excited he was.
He was sentenced to nine months for this offence.
Dowling was found guilty of eight counts of oral rape and three counts of indecent assault that took place at a Clondalkin address between 1990 and 1993 against his cousin Alan Murphy following a Central Criminal Court trial in July 2024.
“I got what I wanted, but up here (Alan points to his head) it doesn’t go away up here,” Mr Murphy told The Echo, from the living room in his home in Clondalkin.
“The courts said the abuse was between the ages of 3-6, but in reality it was every week up until I was 8/9.”
Dowling, who was over 10 years older than Alan, was babysitting at the time.
Alan’s brother, who is a year older, was not abused by Dowling, but suffers his own mental turmoil from what occurred, as Dowling locked the bathroom door while he abused Alan.
“He gets really angry whenever anything about child abuse come up, like really angry. I wouldn’t blame my Mam or Dad or anyone.
‘They always did the best they could for us. At the time, there was three siblings, two boys and a girl. My mam sent my sister to my aunt’s rather than let a boy babysit a girl. That was the way it was back then.”
Did anyone suspect Dowling at the time?
“No. Everybody loved him. He went for the weakest,” recalled Alan.
“Him and his husband were the first gay couple to be married in Jersey and the first gay couple to adopt a child in Jersey.
‘(A second boy was adopted by the pair). They raided his home and found child and animal porn on over 70 devices. He was a big DJ over there, running a kids’ disco and had a studio.
“That’s why I’m talking about it, because I am worried that other kids have been affected.”
At last year’s trial, Dowling was convicted and sentenced to four years imprisonment.
“The courts can only convict on what they can prove. He got jail and that’s good, but he will be back out in four years.”
Alan isn’t quite sure why the abuse stopped at the age of 8/9 but believes it was likely because he was getting old enough to fight back.
Although the abuse stopped, the pain would get worse, and Alan tried to take his own life at 10/11.
Dropping out of school in first year, he spiralled into drink and drugs in an effort to blot out the nightmare.
At age 15, he told his parents what Darren Dowling did to him.
“My Dad [John Murphy] told him to leave the country. The reason I said something was because I wanted him to get in trouble, not to leave the country and abuse other children.”
Alan struggles with depression, anxiety and epilepsy, with seizures first flaring up in 2010, and likely brought about by PTSD.
“It’s always in the morning or when I’m sleeping when I get a seizure. A few weeks ago I fell off the toilet, lucky Kelly was here.”
The major bright light in Alan’s life is his partner Kelly, their three children (aged 15, 9 and 8 months), and his parents and brothers and sisters.
“My wife-to-be. Without her I wouldn’t have taken it as far as it is,” concedes Alan.
“I love my family, and have family supports nearby. The problem is when I’m on my own, it is an emotional drain. The lighting in this living room is nice and soothing because of my PTSD. I’m taking 13 tablets in the morning and 13 when I go to bed.
“I can’t remember anything bar what Darren Dowling done to me. I can’t remember birthdays, holidays. I can’t remember anything else and I hate that.
“I want to be happy and my depression gone and get back to work. I can’t work at the moment with my health and everything that has been going on with this case.”
After Alan went public, other people contacted him to share details of abuse they too have suffered.
“A lot of people got in touch with me including a friend who shared details of abuse he suffered.
‘Another woman called me and asked to meet me in Lidl carpark. She is about 50 and never told anyone before about abuse when she was a child. Seeing my case she knew that I could relate. She has since gone to the gardai.”
Looking ahead, Alan hopes to secure work when his mental health has improved, but hopes that Darren Dowling will never get to hurt another child ever again.
In March 2012, Dowling got a nine-month sentence after pleading guilty to sending obscene and indecent messages, as reported by the Jersey Evening Post.
Known there as Dowling-Wright it was heard in the Magistrates Court he had used the messaging app Kik to message another man in an online group who was an undercover officer.
The prosecutor told the court that the messages were sexually motivated, that he posed a risk to the public and should be placed on the Sex Offenders’ Register.
