Trial begins of Cork doctor accused of sexually assaulting teenage patient over two decades ago
A doctor has gone on trial accused of sexually assaulting a teenage patient over 20 years ago.
Kevin Mulcahy (aged 61) of Creggane, Lombardstown, Mallow, Co Cork, has pleaded not guilty at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court to sexually assaulting a woman in his surgery in Mallow, Co Cork, on a date in 1995.
He also denies a second count of sexual assault at the same location on a date between May 8, 1996, and December 31, 1996.
The complainant, now aged 41, told Maddie Grant BL, prosecuting, that she was 17 in 1995 when her brother became worried about her after a death in the family and suggested she attend a doctor.
She said she didn't really know what was wrong with her but she was “asleep a lot”.
She said at the beginning of the check-up with Dr Mulcahy he asked her to take her clothes off. She hesitated but thought to herself “he is a doctor” and then stripped down to her underwear.
“I felt very naked and uncomfortable. He examined around my breasts. He felt around them. He pressed around them with his hands."
“Inside I felt it was inappropriate but I didn't say anything. I felt very uncomfortable,” she testified.
She told Ms Grant that she didn't recall if the doctor diagnosed her with anything. She said if he gave her a prescription she would have given it to her older brother, who had come to the surgery with her.
The woman said that during subsequent visits Dr Mulcahy would sit with his legs apart and rock her back and forth while pressing into her. She said he would tell her “it's what a loving dad does to a child”.
She said he would try to kiss her and she would resist. “I didn't like it, didn't understand it. I would go out of my body,” she said.
The complainant said the last incident of assault took place when she attended Dr Mulcahy in the summer of 1996.
“He came around to my side. His penis was exposed. He brought my hand over to touch it. He said he'd teach me,” she told the court.
She said she just kept looking at the door to the surgery and wanted to get out of the room.
The trial continues before Judge Pauline Codd and a jury of six men and six women and will run for a week.
