Woman denies she 'willingly' had sex with uncle
A Co Offaly woman has denied at the Central Criminal Court that she willingly had sex with her uncle when she was 17 years old.
The now 29-year-old woman who was giving evidence in the trial of an Offaly farmer charged with raping and sexually assaulting her over an eight year period also said she had not made a decision yet about suing him.
The 54-year-old man has pleaded not guilty to 44 charges alleging offences at two named places in Offaly on dates from 1990 to 1998.
He denies a total of 27 counts of rape: one in 1992; seven in 1993; 10 in 1994; and three each in 1995 and 1996 and 1997-1998. He also denies 17 counts of indecent and sexual assaults on dates from 1990 to 1995.
The complainant told prosecuting counsel, Mr Niall Durnin SC (with Ms Dara Foynes BL), her uncle once raped her in a milking parlour and regularly raped and sexually assaulted her when she was babysitting his children while his wife was away at family weddings in the USA.
She said there were also occasions when the accused raped and sexually assaulted her while his wife was in the house and she was sharing their daughter's bedroom. She said she would try to push him away but didn't scream out at these times because the other girl was sometimes still in the room.
The woman did not accept in cross-examination by defence counsel, Mr Patrick Gageby SC (with Ms Sara Phelan BL), that she bought her uncle a present of pornography and that on one visit to her family home she jumped up on him and threw her legs astride his waist.
She also denied saying anything "uncouth or sexual" to her uncle and agreed it was her case that it was the accused who spoke to her in this manner.
She did not accept a further suggestion from defence counsel that she willingly came to the accused's bedroom in 1995 without any asking. She said she never approached him or "came on to him" in anyway.
She replied: "No, what I am saying is true" when Mr Gageby said the accused admitted slapping her on the bottom and making comments about it but "that there was never any rape as you have described".
She accepted there was a solicitor in court from a firm that has helped victims of sexual assault claim compensation from transgressors, but didn't admit that it was her intention at the moment to sue her uncle.
"I am currently being assessed because of the trauma I have suffered. My aim at the end of all this is to put these rapes and sexual assaults behind me and move on with my life and that may require counselling."
When Mr Gageby told her there was no stamp on the accused's wife's passport for travelling to the USA in 1994 as she had claimed, the woman said his wife must have been on holidays.
She didn't remember him raping her or sexually assaulting her in his bedroom but accepted that in her garda statement she said that during the two week period she was babysitting, her uncle would wait until the children had gone to bed and then "forcibly bring" her into his own bedroom.
"There are such a significant number of sexual assaults and rapes and obviously I was under extreme stress. I can't tell you where it was in the house but I can say it happened in the house," she replied.
She didn't accept a suggestion from Mr Gageby that she also had trouble remembering dates and times. "I can remember seasons. I just can't remember whether they happened at 3.30 or 4.30," she said.
She agreed that she never received any injuries from the alleged rapes, even one when she was 14 years old, but said that she would often be "sore inside". It would clear up in a couple of days so she never needed to visit her doctor after the alleged assaults on her.
She said there were occasions when the accused raped and sexually assaulted her while his wife was in the house and she was sharing their daughter's bedroom.
She said he would regularly come into the room and say he was taking the daughter to the bathroom and then sexually assault her or rape her, sometimes when the young girl was still in the room.
The witness agreed with Mr Gageby that if the accused's daughter looked over when he was sexually assaulting her, the girl would see something "unusual" as her Daddy would be in bed with her cousin.
She said the assault didn't last very long because the accused "was conscious he was supposed to be taking his daughter to the bathroom" and she agreed that afterward he would go back to bed with his wife.
The hearing continues before Mr Justice Peter Charleton.
