Lawyer accuses Cork woman of making up rape claims to deny ex-partner access to children

The woman's daughter wept as she told the court about alleged cruelty when she was a child in the house

Mr Justice Michael McGrath and a jury of five women and seven men at the Central Criminal Court sitting in Cork heard evidence of the two parties disputing access arrangements at the family court. File photo: Dan Linehan

A woman who claimed she was raped and sexually assaulted by her then-partner was accused by the defence of making up the allegations “so that he would be locked up and the key thrown away.” 

Defence senior counsel, Tom Creed, put this allegation to the complainant saying that she made the complaints so that the accused would not get access to the children. The complainant said this was not true.

Mr Justice Michael McGrath and a jury of five women and seven men at the Central Criminal Court sitting in Cork heard evidence of the two parties disputing access arrangements at the family court.

Mr Creed SC said: “You decided that the only way to get him off the pitch was to go to the garda station to complain of rape and sexual assault.” The complainant said that was not true.

Mr Creed said: “All the allegations are for the purpose of denying (name) having anything to do with his children because of the fact that you hate him – that is how you get him off the pitch completely, coming in here making allegations of rape and sexual assault.” She replied: “Not true.” 

A neighbour who travelled in a car with the complainant on one occasion testified that she saw the complainant with bruises on both arms and a black eye and she asked the complainant what happened.

“She would not tell me at first. She was pale as a ghost. She weren’t herself, like. She told me what happened her. That (name) forced himself on her… to have sex… She is a bubbly person. She was not herself,” the witness said.

Daughter's testimony

One of the 59 charges against the defendant is that he was cruel to the complainant’s eldest daughter who was born before he and his former partner commenced a relationship. This witness, who is now in her 20s, testified about alleged cruelty when she was a child in the house.

She said she and her two siblings could be sent to bed very early by the defendant. “I used to be dyslexic and I found spellings really hard to learn. I used to have to sit in a room and learn spellings for hours and hours on end, from the time I came home from school until I would go to bed at night. I had to ask to go to the bathroom.

“When he first put me in the room when I was young I hopped out the window. I would have went to the swing in the back. I was put in for more hours and my belongings were taken from me,” she testified.

The witness said that the defendant was no longer interested in her doing her homework after her third year in secondary school and instead wanted her to clean the house.

She said he would pull everything out of the cupboards in the kitchen or all the clothes out of the wardrobes in the children’s bedrooms and she and her siblings would have to put everything back. She said he wanted clothes folded in a particular way before they were put back.

She said they were not allowed to wear their uniforms at breakfast. She said that sometimes she would put on her uniform and then put her pyjamas on back over the uniform so she would not be late for school. She said the defendant forced her to finish her breakfast even after she was full.

The witness wept when she gave evidence alleging that the accused used to call her names and “get at me about my weight at the time”. 

Prosecution senior counsel, Shane Costelloe, said the accused man faced a total of 59 charges, including two counts of raping his then-partner and “numerous counts of sexually assaulting her”, and cruelty to her three children. 

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 trial continues.