Guilty of sexual assaults on girl, 6

A man who denied sexually assaulting a six-year-old girl agreed to have his penis photographed at a Garda station following the complainant’s description of it containing a brown mole.

The defence in a sexual assault trial at Cork Circuit Criminal Court objected to this evidence being put before the jury, but Judge Seán Ó Donnabháin said the evidence could be given. The pictures became exhibits in the case.

After almost three hours of deliberation, the jury returned majority 10:2 verdicts of guilty against the accused on two sexual assault counts. He was remanded in custody for sentencing on February 10 next.

The complainant, who was six at the time and is now in her mid-30s, said there was a mole or dark mark at the base of his penis.

When this allegation was made to investigating gardaí, they asked the accused if he would agree to have his penis photographed by gardaí and examined by a doctor at the Bridewell Garda Station.

Defence barrister Peter O’Flynn told the jury yesterday that the accused was not obliged have his penis photographed but consented to it.

Dr Mick Finn testified that he examined the defendant’s genitalia and made certain observations. “I found a 3mm circular tan-coloured mole on the skin of his penis at mid-shaft level.”

Mr O’Flynn said to the jury that the evidence of the doctor was that the mark was in a different position to that described by the complainant.

The accused man gave evidence yesterday and said the complainant had told the jury lies. He said he never sexually assaulted her. He said he never borrowed a hairdryer as she had claimed and he said her descriptions of details in the house such as the colour of kitchen units and a picture on the stairs were incorrect.

“She was never in my house,” the accused testified.

He said that his mother was very strict and would not allow anyone into the house and he said they would be kept at the door if they called for any reason.

The complainant said she was six and the accused was aged 19 when he allegedly committed two counts of indecently assaulting her during the summer of 1988.

The complainant testified she was very uncomfortable about bringing a hairdryer to the defendant’s house. She said he asked her to put it on the stairs and then locked the door behind her when she did so.

“He asked me to go upstairs. He led me into a bedroom to my left. It looked like two single beds in the bedroom.

“I had a pink dress on. He asked me to lie down. I was kind of hesitating to do it. I did not want to. He pushed me down on the bed. He then pulled up my dress. He began to rub the front of my vagina with his finger. I was very upset, very uncomfortable.

“I wanted to leave. He had a brown chord pants. He pulled out his penis which was erect. He tried to grab me towards it to stroke it… I stroked it a little. He tried to push it into my mouth. He did,” the complainant said.

She said, on a second occasion, he put one or two fingers into her vagina.

She claimed he told her: “Don’t tell anybody because they won’t believe you.”

She said she told her mother that September as she was getting ready to return to school that the neighbour did something to her.

“She did not believe me because I did not give her any details,” she said.