Galway man denies abusing and raping sister over nine-year period
A Galway man has gone on trial at the Central Criminal Court for sexually abusing his sister for almost a decade.
The 55-year-old accused has pleaded not guilty to indecently assaulting his sister in the family home and later raping her in his car between January 1971 and August 1980.
The now 49-year-old complainant told Ms Mary-Ellen Ring SC, prosecuting, that she had “no friendship” with her brother, can’t remember ever having a conversation with him and was terrified of being alone with him once the abuse had started.
The woman said she was around 10 years old when her brother first indecently assaulted her.
She said though she couldn’t recall the exact state of her clothing, she remembered the incident clearly because she was so shocked.
The woman said her brother brought her into a bedroom a few weeks later and tried to have intercourse with her.
She said this happened many times over the years, although she did not know what was going on because at that time she had not learned about sex education.
She said she was terrified of being alone with her brother even on occasions when he did not abuse her.
“I can remember the terror more than I can remember the abuse”, she said.
The woman told Ms Ring that sometimes the accused would come into her bedroom at night and do the same thing.
She said her brother first raped her when she was about 15 years old on a bog road in his car as he drove her home from a local dance.
She told Ms Ring that this was different from the previous abuse and when she got home she went into the bathroom and washed herself because she felt “so terrible”.
She said her brother raped her in his car on the way home from the dance many times after this and only stopped the abuse when he moved away from home.
The woman added that the final time he gave her a lift home was the night before his wedding.
She denied when Mr Martin Giblin SC, defending, put it to her that none of the incidents she had described ever happened.
“Every one of them happened. I didn’t spend years going to counselling for nothing”, she said.
Mr Giblin put it to her that she had a very good relationship with her brother while he lived at home, after he got married and until she made her allegations.
The woman denied this and explained she was always smiling at various family functions, sometimes hosted by her brother, because she had to put on “a happy front”.
She said she otherwise she would have been asked what was wrong and she was not prepared to answer that question.
She agreed other family members would have seen her dancing and having a drink with her brother at these gatherings but said the friendship was false.
The trial continues before Mr Justice Barry White and a jury.
