Man 'got on great' with sister who accuses him of rape, court hears

A garda has revealed that a Galway man denied all of his sister’s sex abuse allegations and could not say why she would accuse him of rape.

Garda Claire O’Flagherty said the man denied in interview in 2006 that he had penetrated his younger sister’s vagina with a foreign object in 1971, that he had placed his penis near her private parts regularly after that date or raped her in his car some years later.

The 55-year-old accused has pleaded not guilty at the Central Criminal Court to indecently assaulting his younger sister in the family home and later raping her in his car between January 1971 and August 1980.

Gda O’Flagherty told Ms Mary Ellen Ring SC, prosecuting, that the man said he never had any rows with his sister until she made her allegations within the family a few years previously.

He said he had no idea “in the world of God” why his now 49-year-old sister was making the allegations and said he’d always “got on great” with her.

Gda O’Flagherty said the man asserted he was innocent of all the allegations.

The man’s older sister told Mr Martin Giblin SC, defending with Mr Garret Baker BL, that the complainant and the accused got on well before the allegations, were always very friendly and shared common interests.

The woman said she would sometimes pass by her brother’s home, see the complainant’s car parked outside and find her in the kitchen having a cup of coffee.

She told Mr Giblin that she saw a change in her sister’s attitude after she had made the allegations against their brother.

The trial has reached its closing stages before Mr Justice Barry White and a jury of four women and eight men.