A WOMAN told a court today (Tuesday January 21) that a former solider sexually assaulted her in Limerick a number of times when she was a young child.
The woman was giving evidence on the first day of the man’s trial before Limerick Circuit Criminal Court.
The accused denies a total of five counts of indecent assault, in respect of two young girls, which are alleged to have occurred on dates between 1984 and 1989.
One of the alleged victims told the court that, when she was around seven years of age, the man told her they were “boyfriend and girlfriend” and that she was not to tell anyone as it was a “secret”.
The witness said the man showed her how to kiss using tongues, and that “he used my hand to rub his penis”.
The woman said that, some time later on, she felt “upset and hurt” after her mother showed her photographs of the man’s wedding.
“I was upset and hurt, how could he say one thing to me and then get married? I was only a child, I knew something was wrong, I was surprised, I didn’t understand,” the witness said.
The woman alleged that, on another occasion, the accused put his fingers inside her underwear and rubbed her genitals while she was sitting on his lap.
“I was kind of frozen … then I managed to jump up and run,” she told the court.
The woman said that, on a third occasion, the man rubbed his penis against her vagina, while they were inside a shed, when she was “between the ages of four and eight”.
“I was very small…I bolted for the door, I didn’t know what was happening,” the woman said.
“After one of the incidents, I was sore down below. I was prescribed an ointment by our (family doctor).
“No one ever asked me what had happened, and my mother got this yellow ointment and she had to put it on me for a period of time.”
The witness confirmed, during cross examination by the accused’s barrister, senior counsel Anthony Salmon, that the doctor had since died.
The accused is alleged to have sexually assaulted the witness on three occasions when she was a child.
Under further cross examination, the woman said she had not been aware of any “bad blood” between any persons and the accused.
Answering Mr Salmon, the witness agreed that a person known to her had previously “launched an attack” on the accused during a “psychotic episode”.
Mr Salmon read out a letter that he said was written by a second alleged victim, in which she stated that her mother received a letter from the witness about her own alleged complaints against the accused.
Answering Mr Salmon, the witness said she could not recall if she had written the letter.
The witness said she had contacted the other alleged victim on Facebook to inform her she had made a complaint to Gardaí about the accused.
The trial is expected to hear direct evidence from the second alleged victim on Wednesday, who has alleged that the accused sexually assaulted her on two occasions, when she was a child in the 1980s.
Earlier, prosecuting barrister John O’Sullivan BL, told the jury of six men and six women: “This is a case of credibility. Are these two ladies coming to court to fabricate something that happened years ago? That’s for you to decide.”
“There is no doubt that these charges were brought after a considerable amount of time and you will have to have regard to that,” said Mr O’Sullivan.
The court heard that, in the 1980s, the second complainant told her mother about alleged incidents of an indecent nature involving the accused. At the time Gardaí sent a file to the office of the Director of Public Prosecutions, which directed no prosecution.
The accused, who cannot be named due to a court order to protect his and his alleged victims identities, denies all the charges.
The trial continues Wednesday before a jury of six women and six men at Limerick Circuit Criminal Court.
