Gardaí did not know of sex abuse claim retraction

Social workers failed to inform gardaí that a child had withdrawn accusations that he was sexually abused by his parents from the age of six, a jury has been told.

The trial of the parents has previously heard the boy told a social worker in February 2015 that the allegations, which include claims he was raped with a poker and forced to have sex with his mother, were “not real”. Yesterday, defence counsel Colman Cody SC used his closing speech to tell jurors that details of the retractions only came to the notice of gardaí and defence lawyers after a barrister came across them while going through the files of the child protection agency Tulsa.

The jury is expected to begin deliberations today on 22 counts.

The accused had faced 82 counts but 60 were withdrawn from the jury following legal argument.

The boy’s father faces nine counts of raping the boy, nine counts of raping the boy with a poker, and one count of cruelty.

The mother faces two counts of sexual assault relating to allegations she had sex with the boy and one count of cruelty.

Both parents have pleaded not guilty to the allegations, which are alleged to have occurred between 2007 and 2011 in their Waterford home.

Mr Cody, who is acting for the child’s father, said his client believes social workers are to blame for “brainwashing” the child into making the allegations after he was taken into care in 2011. He suggested there was “perhaps more than just a kernel of truth” to this belief in light of the actions of the social workers.

Gardaí travelled to the UK to re-interview the boy in February 2016 after they were made aware of the retraction. During this interview the child said the sexual abuse did happen and he had only said it didn’t because he did not want to go through with the trial.

Counsel said when a social worker was asked why she did not disclose the retraction to gardaí the year before, she “blandly” said she thought she had told a female garda involved in the case. During the trial, all female investigating gardaí denied receiving such information.

The family home was “not little house on the prairie, it wasn’t idyllic but it was a home of love affection and care”, Mr Cody said. He said the boy was a child capable of great love and affection but “was also a child capable of making things up and embellishing them”. Counsel said one legacy of this case is the boy and his parents will likely never have a relationship again and asked jurors to “prevent another legacy, a miscarriage of justice”.

In his closing address, Mr Justice Robert Eagar said the child’s allegations of sexual abuse have not been corroborated.

However, he said the jury can return a guilty verdict but they must treat the boy’s evidence with extra care.

“In the past allegations of sexual abuse have been completely fabricated for many reasons or no reason at all,” he said.