Man accused of indecent assault on seven-year-old girl

A 63-year-old man has gone on trial at Dublin Circuit Criminal accused of simulating sex on a seven -year-old girl more than 20 years ago.

The Dublin man, who is representing himself, had pleas of not guilty entered by the court on his behalf to two charges of indecent assault against the girl on dates between May 1988 and September 1988.

The now 29-year-old complainant told Ms Tara Burns BL, prosecuting, that she was friendly with the daughter of the accused man and they would play together nearly every day.

She said that on an occasion in the summer of 1988 she rang the accused man’s house to see if his daughter was home. She said the man answered and said her friend was not there but told her to come down as she would be home soon.

The woman said she came to the house and remembered being in an upstairs bedroom where she said the accused man had her lie face down on the bed with a pillow at her stomach. She said the accused lay on top of her and moved “as if he was having sex”. She said she heard moaning noises.

She told Ms Burns she did not remember the alleged incident finishing but remembered later dancing along with her friend to “Dirty Dancing”. She said the accused man was watching them dancing.

The woman said a similar incident happened when she “knocked in” to the house for her friend and found she was not home. She said the accused man told her to come inside and wait.

She said he put her onto her stomach on the bed and moved up and down on top of her as if he was having sex.

The woman said she had seen the accused man again several years ago while visiting a work friend. She said they had walked past each other at the gates of a flat complex and when she went inside her friend's house she got sick.

The accused asked her during cross examination why it had taken her so long to go to the gardaí and she replied that she was ashamed of what happened, felt bad and knew it was wrong.

She told the accused she had told a childhood friend about her allegations when she was 11-years-old and later told her sister in 2006. She said people had wanted her to go to the gardaí but she wanted to wait until she was ready.

The accused man asked her why this childhood friend as well as doctors and a counsellor she had confided in were not being called as witnesses. She said she did not work in the legal system and did not know why some people were called and some were not.

She agreed she had been in the accused man’s house maybe “a hundred times” and possibly more. She told the accused she had made five allegations against him in total but was told only two were being proceeded with.

The accused man put it to her that what she was saying never happened. She replied that it did happen.

The woman’s work friend told Ms Burns that the complainant came to her home one day “white as a ghost and terrified as if something bad had happened”. She said the woman was then violently sick.

She said she knew the accused man as he used to live underneath her.

Ms Burns earlier told the jury in opening the trial that the issue of consent in this case did not arise because of the young age of the complainant at the time.

The trial continues before Judge Patrick McCartan and a jury of eight men and four women.