Sex abuse trial hears further evidence

A teenage boy has denied that his allegations of sexual abuse against his father are a result of things becoming “twisted” in his brain after he was taken into care as a six-year-old.

The now 17-year-old boy, whose two older sisters have already given evidence of the sexual abuse they allege their father perpetrated on them, was giving evidence during his third day of cross examination.

The jury spent much of the morning watching home video footage recorded by the accused man of birthday parties, access visits and home life.

His 73-year-old father has pleaded not guilty at the Central Criminal Court to sexually assaulting and raping two daughters between the ages of four and 11 and sexually assaulting his son from the age of three to six at various locations between 1995 and 2002.

He told defence counsel, Mr Blaise O’Carroll SC, defending, that he did not remember telling a social worker in 2005 that he did not want anything to do with his dad and that when he grew up he wanted to beat him with a baseball bat. “I don’t remember but I probably said it,” he replied.

Mr O’Carroll put it to him that his father absolutely denied that he had sexually abused him. “I don’t think he would say he did,” he replied.

The boy denied that whatever had gone on his brain since he left home had been twisted and he had formed a conviction that something had happened which had never happened.

Mr O’Carroll put it to him that the home life captured on the video footage showed a spontaneity which painted a completely different picture then his evidence. The boy told him “I just remember the parts in my statement, that’s why I said it was like hell.”

He told Mr O’Carroll “I remember stuff he did to me” when it was suggested that he had little recall of home life.

The boy agreed with Ms Isobel Kennedy SC, prosecuting, during re-examination, that a home video which showed him with hair of normal length and wearing a tracksuit had been taken during an access visit after he was taken into foster care.

The trial continues before Mr Justice George Birmingham and a jury of eight men and four women.