Former soccer player accused of raping daughter

A former soccer player raped his daughter on an almost daily basis, it has been alleged at the Central Criminal Court today.

The elderly Roscommon man is accused of 74 counts of rape and sexual assault on the girl over a four-year period. Evidence has been heard that he admitted the abuse when confronted by the girl’s mother.

He has pleaded not guilty to 60 counts of sexual assault and 14 counts of rape between January 2002 and September 2006 at locations in Galway and Roscommon.

He cannot be identified for legal reasons.

His now adult daughter told prosecuting counsel, Ms Mary Rose Gearty SC, that the abuse started early in 2002 with touching of her private areas. She said on one occasion he molested her while her brother was in the room with his back to them.

She said in early 2006 he started raping her. She said sometimes he would go into the bathroom while she was having a shower and molest her. Afterwards he would allegedly take her into the bedroom and rape her.

She said the abuse progressed to him raping her almost every day and sometimes she would be abused twice a day.

She said she did not tell anybody because he threatened that her mother would hate her “as much as she hates me”.

She said she wrote a letter addressed to her mother and left it in her room. Her mother found the note one day when she was cleaning the room.

The alleged victim denied a suggestion by defence counsel, Mr Bernard Madden SC, that none of the allegations took place. He asked her why she would have a shower if the accused was “anywhere near her”.

“I wasn’t going to stay dirty, I needed to have a shower,” she replied. “Everything I’ve said in my statement is true and it did happen.”

The girl’s mother gave evidence that she found a letter addressed to her, detailing the alleged abuse. She said she first asked her daughter if its contents were true and then confronted the accused.

She told Ms Gearty that she shouted: “What have you been doing?” and started reading the letter to him. She said he looked shocked at first and said he hadn’t been doing anything.

She said that he then said: “I don’t know why I did it; I need to go to a doctor so he can tell me why I did it so I can come back and tell you.”

She said he also told her: “I know this doesn’t mean much to you but I was going to tell (the alleged victim) that it was going to stop.”

She said she asked him if he used contraception and he replied: “No, that’s how stupid I was.” She said she threw him out of the house and he begged her not to go the gardaí.

The witness agreed with defence counsel that the accused had initially denied the allegations but she claimed that was before he knew what the allegations were.

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