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Social workers failed to inform gardaí that a child had withdrawn accusations that he was sexually abused by his parents from the age of six, a jury has been told.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