IRELAND
Northern Star
22nd July 2012
AFTER battling post-traumatic stress, suicidal thoughts and alcoholism for nearly five decades, Marlene ‘Del’ Burgess has finally turned the corner on her fight to recover from sexual abuse at the hands of a Lismore Catholic priest.
It’s taken years of therapy, it destroyed her marriage and Marlene believes the legacy of the abuse has been visited upon her own daughter and grandchildren.
But she feels finally she can call herself a survivor.
Between the ages of 10 and 14 the now Ballina resident says she was abused by the late Father Paul Rex Brown and beaten repeatedly by a nun she confided in.
In 2003, after 40 years of keeping her dark secret, Marlene revealed her story to The Northern Star.
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