Waterford man on trial for 53 counts of rape and sexual abuse of a child
The trial is being held in camera at Waterford Central Criminal Court.
A man is on trial over 53 charges of rape and sexual assault against a child.
The charges allegedly occurred over a six-year period between 1999 and 2005 in various locations in Waterford.
The man is currently standing trial at Waterford Central Criminal Court before a jury of five women and seven men.
Judge Patrick McGrath has issued reporting restrictions and has cautioned the jury against discussing the trial with friends and family members.
The man cannot be identified due to in-camera restrictions. Barrister Aidan Doyle SC is representing the accused under the instruction of solicitor Hilary Delahunty.
Barrister Garnet Orange SC is acting as prosecutor on behalf of the State.
The complainant alleged that the defendant abused her on a regular, prolonged basis shortly before her tenth birthday.
The woman had moved with her family to a neighbourhood in Waterford and become friendly with the accused and his wife.
On Tuesday, April 14, the complainant gave witness evidence to the jury. She spoke of attending sleepovers at the home of the accused.
The woman described sleeping in a single bed in the spare room of the house and how the accused would get in behind her on the bed.
She said: “He would come in, close the door and get in behind me. He would start heavily breathing on my neck. I don’t remember being scared initially.”
She told the jury that during these incidents, she could feel what she later understood to be the accused’s erect penis against her back.
She said: “I don’t think I knew what it was. I thought: ‘Oh, he’s minding me.’”
The complainant spoke about going on car journeys with the accused and being taught how to drive. She said that the accused placed her on his lap. It was during one of these journeys that she alleged being forced to perform oral sex on the accused.
There was a marked escalation in the nature of the allegations after summer 2002. The woman described the accused watching her while she showered, masturbating and ejaculating on to her. It was after this incident she told the court that the accused raped her in his bedroom.
She said: “I was crying, telling him to stop, it was hurting me.”
Mr Orange asked: “Did this ever happen again?”
She replied: “Yes, it became a regular occurrence at sleepovers.”
The woman outlined a series of rapes and assaults allegedly carried out by the accused at his home, in carparks, a storage space and a disabled toilet.
She said that the final rape occurred on the night of the accused’s daughter’s Christening. She alleged that she had drank alcohol at the party and was later raped both anally and vaginally on a bathroom floor by the accused. Earlier on in the evening, the accused was seen kissing her on the lips. She was in her mid-teens at the time.
Mr Doyle said: “He [the accused] accepts that he inappropriately kissed you on the night of his daughter’s Christening.”
The woman was asked if she told anyone about the abuse. She said that she had told her guidance counsellor during her Junior Cert year.
She described being physically assaulted by a man in 2010, an attack that “brought everything” back to her. She gave a statement to Gardaí at the time.
Defence counsel Mr Doyle cross-examined the complainant over her claims, referring to a sample out of “thousands” of pages of counselling notes.
Mr Doyle referred to multiple notes wherein the woman made several allegations of sexual abuse against the accused, her father and another man. Mr Doyle referenced notes from the years 2017, 2018, 2019 and 2020. In these notes, the complainant makes allegations of serious sexual violence against several people. In one note, she claimed that her father impregnated her.
When the counselling notes were put to her, she responded: “I do not recall that happening at all.”
“Do you recall saying to Gardaí: ‘My father sexually assaulted me’,” asked Mr Doyle.
“Absolutely not, no,” replied the woman.
“Do you recall saying that to your counsellors?” he asked.
“I do not.”
She emphasised that she was severely traumatised and “extremely unwell” during these years. The jury heard about an incident where the complainant was allegedly attacked by several men.
She said: “I was found in an alleyway with duct tape on my arms and legs. I was 23.”
She said that she was discovered by a passerby who called the Gardaí and was examined at the Sexual Assault Treatment Unit at University Hospital Waterford.
Throughout the cross-examination, Mr Doyle asked the complainant repeatedly about allegations of rape and violence within her counselling notes.
She consistently replied that she had no recollection of such statements and that she had suffered a nervous breakdown. She said at one point: “I can’t speak to a time I can’t recall.”
She described suffering prolonged episodes of disassociation and traumatic flashbacks from her childhood while in counselling.
Towards the end of the proceedings, Mr Doyle asked the woman: “Did you become pregnant at 15?”
“I did,” she replied.
“It wasn’t your father, it was [the accused]?”
“Correct.”
The woman explained that she was told by her family not to tell anyone about the pregnancy, including the Gardaí. She said that she miscarried the pregnancy.
Mr Doyle countered: “In counselling notes you repeatedly suggested that [the accused] arranged a type of backstreet abortion?”
The woman said that she clarified the claim during the counselling sessions, and reiterated that she had a miscarriage, not a termination: “When it was said back to me I got extremely upset.”
Mr Doyle said: “On at least three occasions spread out over one year, you told counsellors that [the accused] arranged a procedure, either an abortion or premature birth as induced.” She responded: “I have no recollection.”
The jury heard testimony from the woman's former guidance counsellor, father and sisters. The guidance counsellor had contacted the family over her concerns about the 'neighbour'.
The father told the court about seeing the accused kissing his daughter when she would have been between the ages of 11 and 13. The accused told her father, "something came over me" and apologised for his actions.
Judge Patrick McGrath advised the jury on how to approach the evidence presented during the four-day trial.
At the outset of the trial, he warned the jury: “This is going to be a difficult case.” He warned the jury against discussing the trial with friends or family members.
The judge went through each singular charge of the ‘lengthy’ indictment, explaining the nature of the offences as he went along.
He cautioned the jury against convicting based wholly on uncorroborated evidence.
Judge McGrath said: “The evidence of the complainant is not corroborated by any independent evidence.”
He referred to the notes from counselling sessions where the complainant appeared to make serious allegations about other people, including the complainant.
“She has given accounts to people which are materially different to accounts she gave to Mr Doyle.”
The complainant repeatedly told the court that she made such comments while having a mental breakdown.
Judge McGrath referenced the witness evidence presented to the jury, including testimony made by the complainant’s sister and former guidance counsellor.
Judge McGrath told the court: “Her sister saw the accused visibly upset saying ‘I’m sorry, I’m sorry.’
“The guidance counsellor thought it was ‘strange’ that [complainant] was staying over at the neighbour’s house.”
Judge McGrath ended his address to the jury: “Even if you reject what the accused has to say […] that does not mean that you should automatically convict. You must be satisfied beyond a reasonable doubt.”
At the time of going to press, the jury had yet to come to a verdict and had been deliberating for over eight hours.
