Woman tells trial she remained silent for decades over alleged abuse due to ‘shame’

By Darragh McCann, The Wicklow People

A man has gone on trial accused of sexually assaulting four women, including two of his sisters, at family homes in Dublin and Wicklow over a period spanning almost 20 years, with day two hearing allegations that the accused repeatedly entered the bedrooms of two younger sisters during their childhood and teenage years, with one witness claiming she remained silent for decades because of the “shame” she felt.

The defendant, who cannot be named for legal reasons, appeared at the second day of his trial at Wicklow Circuit Criminal Court on Friday, June 5.

He entered pleas of not guilty to 41 counts of indecent assault and two counts of sexual assault.

Witness A, who is a sister of the defendant, gave evidence that her recollection of her brother allegedly abusing her was when she was about seven years old.

When she was sleeping, he came into her room and asked her to play “horse”. He allegedly proceeded to make her lie on all fours on the bed before pulling up her nightdress and telling her “the horsey needs a tail”, before their mother came into the room.

The court was told their mother slapped and hit the accused, with the alleged witness telling the court she believed it was because they were playing after bedtime.

She stated that the accused came into her room frequently, putting his hand on her genital areas. “I pretended to be asleep, it would happen twice or three times a week,” said Witness A.

She testified that as she got older she began to “get more clever”, with her wearing extra layers of clothing to bed. The complainant added that her family members feared the accused as he had the propensity to be violent when their parents were not home, with her also stating that he “would find it funny to grab at her breasts” when she was 13 or 14 years old.

However, she recalled that when they built an extension to the family home when she was 15, she claimed he would come into the bedroom and put his hand under the covers, but when she was 16 he put his penis between her legs and began thrusting back and forth.

She recalled a night out when she confided in another sibling that he had abused her. “I told her that bastard abused me,” before the sibling informed her that he had also done the same thing to her.

She told counsel for the prosecution, James Kelly, that she didn’t tell her parents or report the matter to police back then because “we didn’t say anything because of the shame, pure shame”. She added: “I carried the shame all my life because of this.”

Her mother was aware but told her: “You can’t bring shame to the family”, but she recalled that she went to the police after she was informed that he allegedly abused his ex-wife’s niece, who is also a complainant in the trial.

During cross-examination, senior counsel for the defence, Vincent Heneghan, questioned the witness about the alleged “horse” incident and the chronology of the family home’s layout and sleeping arrangements.

Mr Heneghan described the property as a “modest house” and asked whether it was a strain on her memory to recall events from so many years ago in such detail.

The witness maintained that an extension was built to the house in the late 1970s to provide a bedroom for the girls.

Counsel further put it to the complainant that she had never been abused in the downstairs bedroom, which she rejected.

He questioned whether she occupied the downstairs bedroom on her own and asked about the circumstances surrounding the alleged incidents.

Mr Heneghan also asked about the darkness in the room and the accused’s shift patterns at the time.

Witness B, who is also a sister of the defendant testified that she was in her bedroom in a dressing gown when the accused allegedly asked her to practise for his girlfriend, before he got into her bed and touched her intimately.

In another alleged incident, she recalled the accused thrusting with his penis and ejaculating, but not placing his penis inside her until a separate incident.

“I can remember the smell of sweat, body odour, Old Spice and Brut,” she said, adding: “He offered to pay me and he put a ten pence piece on my bedside locker.”

Witness B told the court the alleged abuse occurred regularly, although not always to the same extent.

She recalled the last alleged incident, stating that the accused became angry and told her to be quiet .The witness said she remembered telling him that it hurt, to which he allegedly replied: “Wait, I’ll only be a minute.”

She told the court that she was very young at the time but that the alleged abuse stopped when she began menstruating.

“My mother made a big deal out of telling everyone,” said Witness B. She stated that she later began sleeping in her mother’s bed in an effort to “protect herself”.

The witness also recalled being sore following the alleged incidents and told the court she slept in the lower bunk bed. She said she later told another sister about what had happened during a conversation in a pub, although she did not go into detail.

However, she stated that when she was younger she did not tell her mother because she feared how she would react.

During cross-examination, it was put to Witness B by Mr Heneghan that the accused denies the allegations.

Mr Heneghan asked the witness about statements she made to gardaí, in which she said some of the alleged incidents occurred when she was between seven and nine years of age.

When asked if she could recall specific dates, the witness replied that she could not.

The complainant was also questioned about the layout of the family home, while it was suggested that her mother was strict and her father was a hard-working man.

Witness B confirmed that she first made a complaint to gardaí in 2022. Counsel then brought the witness through aspects of her Garda statement before the court adjourned.

The trial will resume with evidence from the remaining two complainants on Tuesday, June 9.