Ex-partner declared 'my house, my rules,' claims Cork woman in rape and child cruelty trial
Prosecution senior counsel Shane Costelloe told the jury that the accused man faced a total of 59 charges, including two counts of raping his then-partner, “numerous counts of sexual assaulting her”, and cruelty to her three children by what was described as a pattern of behaviour. File photo: Dan Linehan
A middle-aged Cork woman told a judge and jury that her then-partner raped her and was cruel to her three children and that he declared: “My house, my rules”.
This evidence was given by the complainant to Judge Michael McGrath and a jury of five women and seven men at the Central Criminal Court sitting in Cork in a trial that has been listed for two to three weeks.
Prosecution senior counsel Shane Costelloe told the jury that the accused man faced a total of 59 charges, including two counts of raping his then-partner, “numerous counts of sexual assaulting her”, and cruelty to her three children by what was described as a pattern of behaviour.
The defendant is also charged with sexually assaulting his partner’s son. The accused man has pleaded not guilty to all of the charges against him.
The complainant had three children before she separated from her husband and then she and the accused man started a relationship in which they had other children together. That relationship is now over. The cruelty allegations related to the three children who were born before the defendant and complainant commenced their relationship.
Describing the defendant’s relationship with her three children, she alleged: “He would never let them go out with friends or anything like that – playdates. He would be constantly on their back giving out to them. They never could do anything right for him.
“He would rip their homework up in pieces. (In relation to one of her daughters) He would make her cry every night, ransacking her bedroom every night of the week. He would make her fold all her clothes until it was satisfactory for him.
“He would ransack the whole playroom or kitchen and make them clean it until it was the way he wanted. He would be cursing and swearing, calling them fecking b*****ds. He would say, ‘My house, my rules, I can do what I like in my house’.
“One night when he was mopping the floor, he caught (the defendant’s son) in a head-lock and poured floor cleaner on his face. It hurt his eyes. I said, ‘What the hell are you doing to the child?’ He said, ‘I did nothing’.
“(Her son) asked Santa for a phone and he (the accused) turned around and said, ‘If you get a phone I will make sure it will be broken by Christmas night or St Stephen’s night. On Christmas night he saw the outline of the phone in his (the boy’s pocket) and he drew a kick at (boy’s name) and broke the phone.
“He was proud as punch he broke the phone. He had a big smirk on his face. (Boy’s name) would have been 11 or 12.
“He (the accused) would sing the same song. It would be drilled into me – ‘Oh Lord it’s so hard to be humble, I’m perfect in every way.’ He used to be grinning mad. He had the whole house unhappy. The only person in the house happy was him.”
She testified that one of her daughters had a difficulty with food and would not eat it if anyone touched it and that the defendant would “come up and paw it.”
The complainant alleged that he raped her in her bed even though she told him to get away from her. She also said that he regularly sexually assaulted her. Asked how she remembered the alleged rape happening on a Saturday night, she replied: “Because the next morning he brought the kids to Mass.”
Asked about life generally in the house, she said: “It was like walking on shells. It was like hell. It was absolute hell. The minute he came in at 6.30 we had to stand to attention. We didn’t know which one he would go for.”
The trial continues.
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