A woman has denied she made sexual abuse allegations against her mother due to resentment.
The woman agreed with Desmond Dockrey SC, defending, when he suggested she had been angry, sad and resentful for many years toward her mother. But she disagreed with counsel representing her mother that her “anger and resentment perhaps clouded your retrospective view.”
Her mother, her uncle, and another man face a total of 21 counts of sexual assault and rape, which allegedly occurred on dates between 2000 and 2014, mainly at a location in the West of Ireland.
The three accused all have addresses in the west of the country. They can't be named for legal reasons.
The woman has pleaded not guilty to 13 counts of sexual assault and not guilty to one count of rape. The court heard she is the complainant's mother.
It is alleged that the woman sexually assaulted the girl on nine occasions between 2000 and 2009 at the family home, on one occasion between 2012 and 2014 and on three occasions during a family holiday in 2001.
Under cross-examination, the woman disagreed with the defence counsel's suggestion that her mother “did not sexually mistreat you as you have described”. She also disagreed with counsel when he suggested that his client only drank at the weekend, saying, “She drank all the time. She let go at the weekend”.
Defence counsel put it to the woman that her mother had been pregnant from 2006 and for several years after due to the arrival of other children. He suggested that she did not drink, except for the odd glass of wine, to which the complainant replied: “I don’t agree. She still drank alcohol while she was pregnant”.
When asked how she could be so sure that the first alleged incident of sexual assault happened when she was under the age of four, the woman said, “I had not started national school”.
Mr Dockery suggested to the woman that the evidence she gave to the jury that she had been “interfered with” is not a reliable timeline. The woman said, “I believe it happened in wintertime, and I remember it was before I was four years old because I had not started school”.
In her evidence to the court yesterday (Wednesday), the woman told the court that her mother “sort of guided” her into performing oral sex on her.
During cross-examination, counsel asked the woman if she had done this to her mother “without a tantrum, objection, crying or without saying a word”; the woman said, “I didn’t throw a tantrum or cry”. The woman said her mother told her “not to tell her grandfather”.
The woman agreed with Mr Dockery that she had been encouraged to speak with the gardai about the alleged offences by family friends. The woman agreed that she made a statement to the gardai in 2015 but did not disclose any allegations of a sexual nature. She said, “I was not able to deal with it at that time”. Some years later, the woman did disclose the alleged allegations to the Rape Crisis Centre.
The jury heard that the family friends had also told her of rumours that her mother and uncle had been “intimate with each other” and that they had wanted her to speak to the gardaí about it. She denied that they pressured her to do so and were not “stirring things up”. The woman further agreed that she had heard a rumour that her uncle had been intimate with her and that she had denied the rumour at that time.
The woman was told by Mr Dockery that these family friends, who she had lived with for several years, had contacted both the gardai and social care workers to highlight their concerns.
Defence counsel outlined that records show that social care workers had called to the complainant’s home for an unannounced visit and described it as damp, dirty, and cold, with the kitchen filled with cigarette smoke. The woman agreed that the home had black mould. The woman agreed that she would get up during the night to tend to her younger sibling, who was crying in a cot beside her mother and stepfather.
Michael Bowman SC, defending the woman's uncle, said that she had identified four incidents that had taken place in three different rooms, to which she agreed. She also agreed that the first alleged incident took place when she was six years old on what she believes was her uncle's birthday.
Mr Bowman put it to the woman that she has “recollections of her mother leaving the bedroom and walking down the stairs.” The woman said, “I remember her leaving the room and hearing footsteps on the stairs, and then she came back with my uncle.” The woman could not remember how her uncle “produced his penis” or if he interfered with her clothing. She did recall her mother picking her up and bringing her to another bedroom after the alleged incident.
The woman agreed with counsel that she had a “strong personal bond” with her uncle and looked at him like a brother. She agreed that she looked up to him and saw him as a protector at that time.
The man has pleaded not guilty to five counts of rape and one of oral rape on dates between 2003 and 2012, all at the same address in the west of Ireland. The court has heard he is the complainant's maternal uncle.
A third man has pleaded not guilty to one count of oral rape between 2008 and 2009 at the same address. The jury heard he was a friend of the accused woman's then-partner.
The trial continues before Justice Melanie Greally and a jury.
