Elderly woman denies sexual history with rape-accused nephew

A 73-year-old woman who claims her nephew raped her in her Co Louth home has denied that she had “intimate sexual experiences” with the accused eight years previously.

The woman also said that she never offered her nephew €1,000 on the morning of the alleged rape not to disclose their relationship to his father, her older brother.

She further denied that she threatened the accused that “things would be bad for him” and “there is more than one way to skin a cat”, if he revealed the fact that they had been having consensual sex.

The woman refused to accept a suggestion from Padraig Dwyer SC, defending, that she made up these false allegations “rather than face humiliation within the family”, if her relationship with her nephew got out.

The 51-year-old accused, who cannot be named to protect the identity of the then 71-year-old woman, has plead not guilty at the Central Criminal Court to two counts of rape, sexual assault and sexual assault while armed with a knife on March 13, 2011.

When his aunt had almost finished her evidence today, the accused interrupted proceedings and stood up.

“I have had enough of this,” he said “It’s a fantasy”, before he walked out of court.

The court broke for 10 minutes before the accused returned and the woman finished her evidence.

Earlier, the woman didn’t accept a suggestion from Mr Dwyer that she had first met his client in 2003 while her husband was in hospital.

“No, I never met him in 2003,” she said.

She denied that between September and December 2003 she had “intimate sexual experiences” with the accused.

“The first time I put eyes on him was the week before he raped me,” the woman said.

She further denied that she also had “an intimate sexual experience” with him during what she claimed was the first meeting.

“That’s all lies,” she said.

The woman refused to accept a suggestion that her nephew told her on the morning of the alleged incident that he was going to tell his father about their relationship.

“Not it’s all lies, it’s all lies that he is telling,” the woman said.

She agreed that she had told the jury in an earlier trial that she did not have a great impression of her nephew following what she said was their first meeting.

When asked by counsel why she then had “no problem” letting the accused into her house on the morning of March 13, she replied: “I knew it was my nephew, I thought I would be safe in my house”.

The woman agreed that she wasn’t wearing any underwear that morning and that she had worn a half slip under her trousers.

She didn’t accept that she later told doctors when discussing the alleged rape that she had been wearing underwear.

The woman agreed that she had a panic alarm which she said she now wears all the time.

She said she used to take it off at night and had taken it off the night before the alleged raped. She said since then she doesn’t take the alarm off at night.

Mr Dwyer suggested to the woman that she had given a different version of details of the rape to the gardaí and an emergency response unit.

She had made the first complaint of rape to the emergency response unit after pressing her personal panic alarm when her nephew left her home.

Counsel suggested to the woman the reason for the difference in the accounts was because her basic account that his client had raped her was false.

“No, it’s the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth,” the woman said.

The trial continues on Monday before Mr Justice Garrett Sheehan and jury of six men and six women.