January 2021

Co Down sex assault survivor shocked to find attacker working in Tesco

A sex assault survivor has described her shock after discovering her attacker working in Tesco.

Abbi Lawther, 22, from Co Down, spotted convicted sex offender Simon Cash in a Tesco store working on the tills.

The Donaghadee man secured a job with Tesco after he was released from HMP Maghaberry late last year after being sentenced to 18 months, with nine months spent in jail and the remainder on licence.

The conditions of his sentence mean he is able to live in the community and work while on licence, but if he was to break the law, he would be sent back to jail to complete the rest of his sentence behind bars.

It is understood Cash has not come to the attention of the authorities since his release but the woman he attacked has urged Tesco to move him from the front-line job and away from the public at least until his sentence is completed.

Cash, a bearded former nursing student from Donaghadee, was convicted in 2018 of two sex assaults against beautician Abbi Lawther, 22. A third offence was left on the books

He was ordered to serve nine months in jail and the remainder of his sentence in the community on licence. Now he is serving customers as a till worker in the retail giant.

Cash’s victim spotted him working the Tesco’s tills earlier this month in an encounter she described as “shocking”.

Abbi struggled with depression, anxiety and suicidal thoughts after the attacks in Bangor in December 2018, however counselling and family support have helped her cope.

She said: “I’ve been doing well and working hard to deal with what happened to me and until recently I’d been having more good days in a week than bad days.

“But seeing Simon cash was a terrible shock. I’ll never forget his face and I couldn’t believe we were suddenly looking at each other while he was serving customers. The last time I’d seen him he was being sentenced to time in jail for attacking me.

“I was with a friend buying a magazine and some wine in Tesco when I saw him. He was wearing a Tesco uniform and a dark face mask, and was sitting at an end till serving a customer.

“I knew one day I’d see him but I assumed it would be in the street, not with him working in a family shop

“I just couldn’t believe it. He looked at me and I just turned and left. I was shaking and I felt very upset.

“I know he served nine months in jail for what he did to me, and he must do nine months on licence to complete the sentence given to him.

“But what I just don’t get is how a convicted sex offender on licence can be the best candidate for a job at Tesco when we hear of so many people looking for work with them without success.

“And why have Tesco chosen to place him on the front-line where he’s handling customers’ shopping and speaking directly to them? He is still serving a sentence for sexual assault.

“I do understand that prisoners need to rehabilitate, and despite being a sex offender Simon Cash still has to live in the same world I live in, and he has to somehow find a way to make a living. In fact I’d rather he worked somewhere rather than have my taxes pay for his dole money.

“But why not have him away from the general public, or at least off the tills until his licence period is up?

“He has to work somewhere but surely there are more suitable roles where he’s less likely to bump into his victim.

“When I saw him he was scanning groceries for a woman customer, I honestly felt like someone had kicked me in the stomach. I wanted to shout to her and tell her but I knew I had to hold my own dignity and I walked away.”

Cash’s conviction and his place on the Sex Offences Register until 2030, scuppered his plans of a career in nursing.

His attack on victim Abbi Lawther happened while he was on a Christmas break from studying at Dundee University’s School of Nursing and Midwifery.

The then 22-year-old had latched onto a group of friends in Betty Black’s nightclub in Bangor and sexually assaulted Abbi, who was a stranger to him, outside the premises and inside a taxi.

Footage of him targeting her in a taxi had been captured on CCTV and his DNA was found in the taxi, on his victim and her clothes.

Cash was convicted of sexual assault and sexual assault by penetration against Abbi and initially sentenced to 100 hours community service and three years probation.

On March 6, 2020 Cash was jailed for 18 months, half of it in HMP Maghaberry in the sex offenders’ wing and nine months on licence – and he was placed on the Sex Offenders’ Register for 10 years.

January 2021

Pensioner jailed for sex attack on 11-year-old

A South Armagh man who sexually assaulted a young boy more than ten years ago has been handed a 14 month sentence.

As 67-year-old Seamus Murphy appeared at Newry Crown Court by videolink from his solicitor’s office, Judge Gordon Kerr QC ordered him to surrender himself to custody on Monday morning.

Jailing the Crossmaglen pensioner, the judge told him that “unsurprisingly,” given the fact that the victim had to testify against the paedophile twice, he had found the court process traumatising.

At the end of his trial, Murphy, from the Ballsmill Road, was unanimously convicted on two counts of indecent assault committed between August 2004 and August 2005.

The jury heard that Murphy, who still protests his innocence, was looking after the 11-year-old victim when he unzipped the victim’s trousers and touched him inappropriately.

“The victim told him to stop and he put his finger to his lips as if saying to be quiet,” said the judge who added that while the incident was serious and merits a jail sentence, “it was a single incident….and the touching was at the lower end of the scale.”

“Nevertheless this was in the context of an assault in an 11-year-old boy that took place in the presence of his brother who was asleep,” Judge Kerr told the court, adding that it was a “serious breach of trust.”

In addition to the jail sentence, Murphy was ordered to sign the police sex offenders register for the next ten years.

March 2016

Exposed: Ballyclare sex attacker Jordan Kernoghan

A man who tortured, humiliated and sexually abused his best friend failed in a High Court bid on Saturday to prevent Sunday Life revealing his identity.

Ballyclare man Jordan Kernoghan (pictured above) is today revealed as the violent sex offender who helped Darren Fu (pictured below) subject 17-year-old pal Aodhan Woods to hours of hell at a flat in south Belfast.

Would-be rock guitarist Kernoghan, who turns 19 in April, was Aodhan’s best friend and the pair had been studying music together at college in Bangor.

Last night brave Aodhan Woods said he was “over the moon” that the High Court had rejected former pal Kernoghan’s bid to stop Sunday Life naming him.

“I finally feel like after all this time I can finally start to move on,” said a relieved Aodhan.

“It’s such a weight off my shoulders — it’s the closure that I needed.”

Fu and Kernoghan, then 17, subjected terrified Aodhan to violent and degrading attacks at Fu’s flat in Stranmillis in May 2014.

A pillowcase was placed over Aodhan’s head with towels also wrapped around and “held in place with a belt” before he was subjected to several serious sexual assaults.

The twisted duo even used a drumstick and a microphone stand to inflict “extreme discomfort” on Aodhan.

Kernoghan, who tried to stop Sunday Life publishing his details, even used a fake name on Facebook to hide his identity while showing off his new fiancée.

“I couldn’t understand why Jordan was never named, because he’s an adult, but I didn’t think there was anything we could do,” said Belfast Met student Aodhan.

“It felt like he’d kind of got away with it. But I’ve learned recently that I never really actually knew that much about him.

“The three of us were best friends when this happened — I was with them near enough every day.

“Jordan was in my tech class at SERC in Bangor and then I met Darren [Fu] on a website called Join My Band. It was mainly music that we all enjoyed but the three of us just got on really well and liked a lot of the same things.

“I just never ever expected something like that to happen. It was unbelievable.

“I feel like it’s one thing if it’s a stranger but it’s another if it’s your mates, and your best ones at that.

“I trusted them and that’s why now I have trust issues. I don’t trust people after what they did and it’ll take a long time to build that back up.”

Aodhan, who has courageously spoken out about his ordeal in an attempt to help other victims, has recently been diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder.

Jordan Kernoghan was sentenced alongside Darren Fu for the attacks on Woods last week. He received a six-year sentence — three in custody at a Young Offenders Centre and three on licence.

But while Fu was named and shamed, Kernoghan remained anonymous because he was mistakenly identified as a ‘youth’ in court papers and journalists believed he could not be identified.

When Sunday Life established there was no court order to prevent Kernoghan being named, the sex attacker rushed to seek an interim injunction barring us from naming him today.

In the High Court yesterday, his lawyer argued that identifying Kernoghan would impinge on his Article 2 rights under the European Convention of Human Rights.

In an affidavit, Kernoghan’s solicitor said he had been instructed by his mother that “she is extremely concerned about the likely impact upon the plaintiff’s health and well-being, were his identity to be made public”.

A lawyer said Kernoghan had a history of self harm and suicide attempts, had been diagnosed with Asperger’s Syndrome and was a vulnerable individual. He asked for a temporary injuction to allow time for an assessment of client by a suitable clinician.

But Mr Justice John O’Hara rejected Kernoghan’s injunction bid after considering medical reports on the convicted sex offender.

He said Kernoghan’s reported history of self-harming and suicide attempts took place in his early teens and were, in his reading, related to his use of drugs and alcohol. But he said a more recent medical report indicated that Kernoghan displayed significant and sustained improved improvement and was not considered at risk of self harming.

The judge quoted Kernoghan himself telling the doctor about how he had made good progress — he was off the drugs, had got his own house and had a fiancée.

 The judge accepted Kernoghan had been diagnosed with Asperger’s and would require ongoing treatment.

But Mr Justice O’Hara said there was a public interest in not giving anonymity to violent offenders and the publication of their names also acted a deterrent to others.

He said it was obviously regrettable that any person should suffer from Asperger’s but this was not a justification for granting anonymity to a violent offender.

Sunday Life was not legally represented at the hearing but news editor Stephen Gordon spoke on the newspaper’s behalf.

On hearing the judge’s decision, a delighted Aodhan Woods said: “I’m just so glad that people finally know who he is and what he’s done.

“I thought Jordan’s friends might wonder where he’d gone if he just mysteriously disappeared for three years but I know a lot of them don’t have a clue what’s happened because he was never named in court.

“I could never forgive them for what they did. I couldn’t even look at them again, but thankfully I won’t have to.

“This is the closure I feel I deserved and now I can try to get on with my life. I’m so happy.”