Ex-partner declared 'my house, my rules,' claims Cork woman in rape and child cruelty trial

The cruelty allegations related to the three children who were born before the defendant and complainant began their relationship

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.