I sat on my grandad’s lap watching Coronation Street with my family… what he was doing under the blanket leaves me sick

DRESSED in her pyjamas and settling down to watch TV with her family, Megan O’Brien was like any other seven-year-old. But as her step-grandfather pulled her onto his lap, she was frozen with fear by what came next. Megan O’Brien was sexually abused by her grandfather Credit: SWNS Paul Mundy was jailed for 31 years Credit: SWNS Paul Mundy, 71, had been Megan’s grandma’s partner for her entire life and was a man she trusted. But under the cover of the blanket, he began years of abuse while surrounded by her unsuspecting family. The abuse continued at least twice a week, becoming progressively worse until Megan was around 15. Sign up for The Sun newsletter Thank you! Megan, now 26, from Doncaster, South Yorkshire, says she had “no reason to fear” Mundy at first because they had a “close relationship” and he saw her as his “golden child”. But in 2007, while Mundy was living at her family home to help Megan’s mum, Julie Wright, 57, raise her four children, the abuse began after Megan was sent home from school having banged her head. At such a young age, she did not know what he was doing was wrong Credit: SWNS The abuse began when he showered her after she bumped her head at school Credit: SWNS She recalls: “He came and picked me up and took me to the bathroom and said he was going to help with showering me. “He then began touching my body inappropriately”. Megan says the abuse then spiralled and was most frequent when the family gathered to watch Coronation Street, and she sat on Mundy’s lap. She says: “My grandpa had his own armchair, which was placed side on but tilted to face away from the settee where my family would sit in the living room. Most read in The Sun “I would be in my pyjamas, sat on his lap, facing towards my family, and he would have his hands down my trousers”. Megan says there was never any communication when he was performing his acts, saying they would both just “stay silent”. “I didn’t say anything to anyone, as being at such a young age, I didn’t know what he was doing was wrong,” she says. “Also, he and my grandma were all the family my siblings and I had, and I didn’t want to ruin that. Did her grandmother and step-granddad raise her? How to report a sexual assault Contact a doctor or practice nurse at your GP surgery. Contact a voluntary organisation, such as Rape Crisis, Women’s Aid, Victim Support, The Survivors Trust or Male Survivors Partnership. Call the 24-hour freephone National Domestic Abuse Helpline, run by Refuge, on 0808 2000 247. Speak to the rape and sexual abuse support line run by Rape Crisis England and Wales – you can call the helpline on 0808 500 2222 or use the online chat (both are free and are open 24 hours a day, every day of the year). “It became as normal as when someone saw their grandma and would give them a hug; I would see my grandpa, and he would abuse me.” Mundy moved out of Megan’s house when she was eight after her elder brothers moved into separate bedrooms, but his new home was still within walking distance, and he would visit her while on the way to the pharmacy or shops. By the age of 11, the abuse escalated to “aggressive” touching and groping, with him forcing her hands down his trousers. He even left her money after each sickening act. She says: “If I knew my mum was out and he was coming around, I would lie in the living room on the settee as if I was asleep watching TV. “I couldn’t deal with facing him; I would enter into fight or flight. “I remember him pulling down my shirt and fondling my breast. “He would pull down my trousers and inappropriately touch me or put my hands down his trousers. “He was so aggressive that he would occasionally rip the zips trying to take off my jeans. He would abuse her while she sat on his lap, watching TV Credit: SWNS “Then, before he would go, he would leave the money on the coffee table and leave a £20 note or give it to me on his way out.” But according to Megan, the worst occasion was while sitting around the TV aged 12 with her family during a reunion holiday in Cornwall. She says: “My whole family, including my three siblings, my mum, my auntie and uncle and their partners, was in the room and he had his hands down the back of my trousers – it knocks me sick looking back. “I am old enough to remember it, and I remember feeling so helpless to it. “I felt like I couldn’t say anything in that moment and that I couldn’t turn to anyone. “I would blame myself for it even though I was just a child.” Megan says her family didn’t suspect a thing as he was so “calm and calculated”. The abuse and mental torture left her a “shell of her former self”, and she began “lashing out at teachers during school time”. When Megan was 15, she started dating and only then did the abuse stop. She said: “He realised I wasn’t just his anymore, and it must have taken all the sick pleasure he got out of it now I had a boyfriend.” It wasn’t until she was in her second year at university in Leicester in 2020 that she confided in her mum, who told her to report him to the police. Megan sent the text after she was alone most of the time in her bedroom, as it was in Covid, and it just got too much for her to “handle”. It wasn’t until her second year of university that she confided in her mum Credit: SWNS The abuse only stopped when she was 15 Credit: SWNS Julie says: “I was devastated and heartbroken when I read the text. “The thing that hurt the most was that I had no idea this was going on, and I couldn’t be there like I wanted to be to protect her and stop it from happening.” “I advised Megan to report it to the police, and that I would support her decision 100 per cent. Three other women also went to the police after being abused by Mundy after Megan’s initial report. Megan cut off all contact with her grandma after she decided to go to the police. In May this year, despite denying the claims, a jury found Mundy guilty, and he was sentenced to 31 years in prison and placed on the sex offenders’ register. Before the conviction, the CPS originally said there wasn’t enough evidence to charge Mundy on two occasions, according to Megan. But following an appeal by all the women involved, they agreed to take him to court. Megan says: “Only after my first interview with the police did I tell my siblings. “My older brothers were angry and upset, and my sister was in shock. “They never thought anything like this would ever happen to someone they loved.” “For him to initially deny the charges was a horrific feeling, but for him to be believed by 12 strangers was such a relief. “It has been the longest, most drawn-out process of my life, but I am very pleased with the outcome.” Megan, who works in compliance, is now in an “incredible” relationship with her partner of two years, Ben Woodgate, 29, who is an electrician, and she says she is “healing and learning that not everybody acts the same way her step-grandad did. Megan said Ben is also “angered” by what happened but says he is “very protective and supportive” of her. She says: “I still struggle if Coronation Street is on TV, it sends me straight back to when I was sat on his knee. “He was so confident and calm during the abuse, as he knew he could get away with it. The fact that he brazenly did it with family around showed how sick he was. “I was scared of him before, but when I saw him in court, I realised he was just a fragile old man. “I’m disgusted by him and left feeling repulsive whenever I think about him. He dictated my life for over a decade, and I am glad it is no more.” Comment now