Jury told they do not need to consider four of 11 counts of sexual assault

A Central Criminal Court jury in the trial of a Dublin man accused of sexually abusing a young girl in the city over 20 years ago have been told they no longer need to consider seven out of the 11 counts against him.

The 58-year-old accused had originally pleaded not guilty to three counts of raping and eight counts of sexually assaulting the girl while she was aged between six and 11 years old between 1983 and 1989.

Mr Justice Daniel Herbert told the jury that they should now only concern themselves with two counts of sexual assault on dates between September and December 1983 and two counts of rape on dates between May 1984 and February 1988, to which the accused had pleaded not guilty.

He told them he would be directing them to return verdicts of not guilty on all other counts at the end of the case.

The now 31-year-old woman told prosecuting counsel, Ms Mary Ellen Ring SC (with Mr Bernard Condon BL), that the accused was a family friend and she visited his home frequently both alone and with relatives.

She told Ms Ring that she went on a trip with the accused in his mini-van to a beach and that while they were playing hide and seek he touched her on the chest and told her not to tell anyone.

She said she remembered another incident at the man's flat where he touched her on the chest and on her "private". She said he had his clothes on and she touched his genital area. She said she never saw his penis.

The woman said that she visited the accused some time after making her communion and he asked her about her communion money. She told him that she did not know how much it was because her father was minding it.

She said they were sitting on a couch and he began touching her on her "private", opened her trousers and "forced himself inside me". She said she told him it hurt and he told her it would be all right in a minute.

She told Ms Ring another incident of alleged rape occurred at the flat when she visited him asking to borrow a pair of roller skates.

The woman said on a further occasion when he was teaching her how to play the guitar the accused sat behind her and pushed his penis up against her back.

She said she "just stopped going" to the accused man's home when she was about 11.

The trial continues before Mr Justice Herbert and a jury of five men and seven women.