‘I will keep fighting and I won’t back down’ says survivor of child abuse in Laois Marlene Prakash Shiels read the following Victim Impact Statement in court last month on the day her father Patrick Shiels was jailed for sexually abusing her as a child in Portlaoise Reporter: 1 Jun 2021 Survivor of child abuse Marlene Prakash Shields tells her story after waiving her legal anonimity so that her father and abuser Patrick Shields would be named '); '); My name is Marlene Prakash Shiels, I was born on April 28th 1996, 25 years ago. But my life only gets to start today.