March 2004 Ex-GAA coach goes to jail for indecently assaulting two girls A FORMER coach with the GAA has been jailed for three-and-a-half years for indecently assaulting two girls more than 20 years ago.  Christopher Melia (59) of Carnog Brugha, Drogheda, pleaded guilty at Dundalk Circuit Court to 10 sample counts of indecent assault on the girls between 1980 and 1987. The assaults, described by Judge Raymond Groarke as “depraved”, took place between 1980 and 1987 in his house. The first complaint was made to gardai in 2002 after one of the girls, who is now a mother, saw Melia at a sports match and realised he was training an underage GAA team, the court heard. Investigating Garda Valeria Gahon said eight of the 10 sample counts related to one girl; the remaining two counts to the second girl. The first girl was about four years old when the abuse started and it continued for eight years; the second girl was about nine years old when it began and it lasted for about two years. When gardai interviewed Melia he admitted the offences and said he knew what he was doing and, “it seemed at the time it wasn’t so bad”, he said in his statement. Melia, who worked for Irish Rail in Drogheda for more than 30 years, resigned once the offences came to light and, at the request of the GAA, is no longer associated with the organisation. The garda said that the woman against whom the eight offences were committed now has a fear of strangers and men in particular; while the second woman is in counselling, has trouble sleeping and is conscious of how she dresses her own children for fear they would “look attractive”. Roddy O’Hanlon, defending, said Melia was a recovered chronic alcoholic and a manic depressive.