Daughter tells court she ‘probably’ showed journal to mother in garda cruelty and rape trial

Declan Brennan

The eldest daughter of a garda charged with raping his wife and child cruelty has told the trial of her father that she probably did show a journal she was keeping to her mother.

The now 24-year-old was giving evidence in the Central Criminal Court trial of her father, who has pleaded not guilty to two counts of child cruelty against her on unknown dates between 2007 and 2024.

He has also denied a charge of assault causing her harm on an unknown date in late 2021 to early 2022, after she had turned 18.

The 48-year-old man has also pleaded not guilty to two counts of raping his wife, this woman’s mother, on dates in 2009 and 2021 and to child cruelty of another, younger, daughter.

All parties in the case have a statutory right to anonymity.

The alleged offending took place at two locations in the north-west of the country where the family was living at the relevant times.

The wife of the accused has described two incidents, one in 2009 and another in 2021, when she said her husband raped her. She said she had told him she didn’t want sex but he said he didn’t care and went ahead with it.

'An atmosphere of violence and threats'

In her direct evidence the oldest daughter of the accused said the family home had “an atmosphere of violence and threats” and it felt like living in a military barracks. She described an incident in which her father ripped the earrings out of her ears when she was 10-years-old after she had been misbehaving.

She said she decided to go to therapy with Jigsaw in June 2024 and that the first session “highlighted something and then Tusla was involved”. She said that her therapist suggested to her to begin keeping a journal and she did this.

“Anything that had happened that I had brushed off I started to write about,” she said.

Under cross-examination from James McGowan SC, defending, she said she travelled with her mother and her grandmother to make their statement of complaint together.

Asked if, before making her statement, did her mother ask to see the journal, the witness said no. She said she didn’t show her mother her journal and said she was certain about both these things.

McGowan asked her about text messages between her and her mother from November 2024 in which her mother wrote “I want to look over them” and she replied “it’s all stuff that happened to me, why would you need to talk about it?”.

In the next text message her mother wrote “just in case it’s something I remember?”.

Asked what that was referring to, the witness told counsel “that was about my journal”. McGowan asked her again if she would have shown her mother the journal then the witness replied: “if she asked me I probably did”.

She told McGowan she used the journal to collect her thoughts and help “work through” them. She told the jury that “like most teenage girls” she did keep diaries over the years, but said “none of them would have contained what the journal did”.

She told the jury that she entitled her Jigsaw journal “the story of my life – trauma edition” because “the contents of it are so heavy” and “it was something to make it feel a little less”.

She said that her younger sister, who is the second alleged victim of child cruelty, also kept a journal, but that neither of them read each other’s journal.

She said she knew what her sister’s journal looked like because she saw her using it when they were in her grandmother’s house. She said they were both sitting at the kitchen table and journaling, but not talking.

She said her grandmother left the room and said: “I don’t even know when my grandmother found out I was in Jigsaw, I didn’t speak about it”.

She said she never told her grandmother anything about what was happening in the house, and the first person she “opened up to” was the Jigsaw therapist. She said after this she did “open up to” her grandmother.

She said her case was referred to Tusla by Jigsaw. She said she subsequently decided not to proceed with her own case as she was “still living at home” and she was aware that the file was closed.

The trial continues before the jury of seven men and five women and Justice Sean Gillane. It is expected to run for two weeks.

If you have been affected by any of the issues raised in this article, you can call the national 24-hour Rape Crisis Helpline at 1800-77 8888, access text service and webchat options at drcc.ie/services/helpline/ or visit Rape Crisis Help. In the case of an emergency, always dial 999/112.