Jury in trial of men accused of sexually abusing deaf family member told court in 'new territory'

Isabel Hayes

The jury in the trial of seven men accused of sexually abusing a deaf family member has been told the court is in “new territory”, with a number of sign language interpretation teams in place to assist the process.

The woman started giving evidence on Tuesday in the Central Criminal Court trial of the men - her three uncles and four brothers.

The seven men, who are aged between 32 and 55, are accused of a total of 98 counts of sexually abusing her at various stages over 17 years between 1996 and 2013.

One of the woman's brothers is also accused of four counts of sexually abusing another sister and of anally raping a third sister.

The men deny all the charges against them. None of the parties involved can be named for legal reasons.

Before the woman started giving her evidence via videolink on Tuesday, Ms Justice Caroline Biggs told the jury that she wished to explain how the trial will run for the coming days and weeks.

The court was told that the complainant requires two interpreters - an Irish Sign Language (ISL) interpreter and a deaf relay, who the court heard will assist at times where the complainant may be using an older form of sign language or home sign.

The jury was told that as well as these interpreters, there are two teams of monitoring interpreters in court – one team to assist the lawyers in the case and one team to monitor the translation process as it occurs and to alert the court to any errors.

Minor errors will be brought up during breaks, but if a serious error is noticed, then the interpretation team will be entitled to interrupt the trial process, the jury was told.

Ms Justice Biggs gave an example of a recent case involving a Spanish interpreter in which the complainant was translated as having used the word “coerced”, but the monitoring interpreter alerted the court to the fact she had said “encouraged”.

“That's the work the monitoring teams will carry out,” Ms Justice Biggs said.

The jury was told that due to levels of concentration required in interpretation work, the court will take 20-minute breaks every 40 minutes. The complainant may also require breaks, and she will also be accompanied by an intermediary who is a linguistics expert and will assist her if there are any signs of confusion, stress or tiredness, the court heard.

“The use of two interpreters and an intermediary is an unusual situation,” Ms Justice Biggs told the jury, adding it has only been done once before in this country and that was in a case involving just one defendant.

“The reality is this is new territory for almost all of us and you may have to be patient with us.”

The trial, which is expected to last four months, continues before an extended panel of 15 jurors.

Accused A – the woman's 55-year-old uncle - is accused of a single count of raping her on a date between December 2009 and April 2011.

Accused B (48), another uncle, is accused of eight counts involving rape, oral rape and anal rape on dates between December 2008 and December 2010.

Four of her younger brothers are accused of sexually abusing her over varying periods of time.

Accused C (34) is accused of 45 counts – 22 of rape and 23 counts of anally raping her over a 12-year period between 2001 and 2013.

Accused C is further charged with the sexual abuse of two of his younger sisters. He is charged with one count of sexual assault in relation to one sister, Complainant 2, on a date between 2005 and 2006 when she was a child. He is also charged with two counts of rape and one of anal rape of this woman on dates between 2016 and 2019.

He is also charged with one count of anally raping a third sister, Complainant 3, on dates between 2013 and 2014.

Accused D (33) is accused of 22 counts of sexually abusing his sister over an 11-year period on dates between 2002 and 2013. He has pleaded not guilty to 19 charges of rape and three counts of anal rape.

Accused E (32), is accused of 16 counts of sexual abuse against his sister over an eight-year period between 2003 and 2011. He has denied nine counts of anal rape and seven counts of raping her.

The fourth brother, Accused F (also 32), has denied five counts – three counts of anal rape and two counts of raping his sister on dates between 2007 and 2010.

Another uncle, Accused G (45), has denied a single count of raping her on a date between 1996 and 1997.

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.