Rape accused denies 'forcing himself' on his mother

The man told Mr Gerard Clarke SC, prosecuting, under cross-examination: “I didn’t go forcing myself on anyone”.

Mr Clarke put it to him that he “took advantage of her and raped her” to which he replied: “No, I didn’t”.

“You went ahead and had sex with this woman”, said Mr Clarke.

“This woman also had sex with me”, replied the accused.

“My mother started kissing me when we were dancing and the kissing continued”, he said.

The accused said when his mother was getting up off the ground afterwards she said “leave me be” and that was the only time she said so.

He said he did not accept his mother’s account that she told him to leave her alone.

Mr Clarke put it to the accused his mother recalls being on a reclining chair and then having sex on the floor.

“Did she fall off the chair?” Mr Clarke asked him, saying his mother “was arthritic” and “it would be hard for her to get on the floor”.

The man replied he did not remember the exact movements saying they continued kissing on the floor.

The accused said he thought she was unable to get up because “I thought it was drink”.

“Your direct evidence is that your mother started kissing you” said Mr Clarke.

The accused said they were “kissing on the mouth” and it just “got more and more intense”.

“She was saying: ‘You’re the image of yer Da’,” he said. “I wasn’t thinking this is my mother”.

He later agreed with Mr Clarke he knew at all times it was his mother.

“Not only do you tell the jury you were kissing your mother, you were holding her as well as her back, her sides and her breasts”, said Mr Clarke.

“At the time I wasn’t thinking it was my mother,” he said. “I can’t explain it.”

Mr Clarke put it to him that it “didn’t matter” she was his mother “it was just a female” to which the accused replied: “Yes, I can’t explain it”.

“So it didn’t matter it was your mother”, said Mr Clarke to which the accused replied “I suppose”.

When Mr Clarke asked him if he was “very drunk” he replied “no”.

He told his defence counsel, Mr Giollaíosa Ó Lideadha SC, he believed his mother wanted to have sex.

“Did she give any indication that she didn’t know what was happening?” asked Mr Ó Lideadha to which the accused replied “No.”

He said when he was younger his mother used a belt to hit him and that he got into trouble” when he was younger.

The accused’s brother gave evidence that as children their mother would have disciplined himself and his brother “frequently” with a wooden spoon or belt.

“I don’t recall too much affection,” the man told Mr Ó Lideadha.

The man told Mr Ó Lideadha their mother “was a regular drinker over the years”, agreeing she was “somebody who was able to hold a certain amount of drink” and was “very rarely falling down”.

Mr Clarke said they grew up in a “typical family where the father is dead” and the mother had to discipline the children.

He later agreed with Mr Clarke his accused brother had “got into trouble at an early age”.

The trial is now in its closing stages before Mr Justice Paul Butler and a jury of seven men and five women.