Trial commences in Waterford as man accused of sexually abusing his partner's daughter
Three separate assaults are alleged to have happened in 2022, several months apart.
Evidence was heard in Waterford Circuit Criminal Court on Wednesday in relation to the trial of a man accused of child sexual assault. The proceedings were held in-camera before Judge Eugene O'Kelly.
The man accused was described as the partner of the complainant’s biological mother.
The gardaí were first made aware of the alleged sexual assaults in April 2023. The incidents are alleged to have happened in County Waterford.
The jury watched a DVD recording of a garda interview that occurred in 2023 with the complainant, where she described the alleged assaults.
She said that three separate assaults happened in 2022, several months apart.
She said the first time the assault happened, she woke up and found the accused sitting in the room she was sleeping in. When she asked him what he was doing, he said he was looking for a charger for his phone.
The complainant said she suggested he try the kitchen. She said he then got into bed with her, placed his head on her chest, and touched her inappropriately.
The complainant claimed that after this happened, the man started crying and told her not to tell anyone. She was 13 at the time.
She said the assault, “didn’t happen for long but it felt like a long time. I didn’t know how to react.”
According to the complainant, the second assault was of a similar nature but also involved the man putting his hand down her pants.
She said this incident only stopped when she heard her younger sibling wake up in another room. She brought her younger sibling into the kitchen to get her something to eat.
The complainant claimed that the third sexual assault was largely similar to the first. She said this time, he had given her alcohol. She claimed that he was drunk on all three occasions of the alleged assaults.
The court heard that the complainant told one of her guardians about the alleged assaults during an argument where she was “in trouble” for drinking alcohol.
The complainant’s parents immediately called the guards.
The man who has been accused of these assaults maintains that they never happened.
The complainant appeared via video link at Waterford Courthouse and was questioned by the defence barrister. When asked why she did not tell anyone about the alleged incidents, she said she was concerned for her younger sister, who lived in the house where the accused spent “a good amount of time”.
She said, “This was a way to protect her by letting it happen to me, but over time I realised telling someone was the only true way to protect her.”
She said she knew if she told an adult, she would not be allowed back to that house.
She explained, “I thought it was better if I stayed there so I’d know it wasn’t happening to her.”
The complainant told the court that she had told some of her friends – who were all minors at the time - about the incidents but “didn’t want them getting involved”.
The complainant’s primary guardian, her grandmother, told the court that after the alleged assaults, “it was like the light had been taken from her”. She continued that the complainant “didn’t want to go anywhere, she didn’t want to do anything”.
The trial will resume on Thursday.
