Garda on trial accused of rape of his wife and child cruelty

Accused a violent and domineering father and husband, trial jury told

Accused has pleaded not guilty to two counts of raping his wife on two occasions in June 2009 and November 2021, and has further pleaded not guilty to the three counts of child cruelty and the single count of assault causing harm.

A garda has gone on trial accused of child cruelty of his children and the rape of his wife.

The jury at the Central Criminal Court sitting in Dublin heard the 48-year-old man was allegedly “a violent and domineering father and husband” who subjected two of his daughters to “unreasonable chastisement” for most of their childhood.

In his opening speech on day one of the trial, Dominic McGinn, prosecuting, told the jury the man is alleged to have subjected his eldest daughter to neglect for most of her childhood.

He is charged with child cruelty against her on an unknown date between 2007 and 2013 and, secondly, on an unknown date between 2013 and 2020.

He is also alleged to have assaulted this complainant causing her harm sometime in late 2021 or early 2022, after she had turned 18.

The man is also charged with child cruelty of another daughter on an unknown date between 2015 and 2024.

The man, who has a legal entitlement to anonymity, has pleaded not guilty to two counts of raping his wife on two occasions in June 2009 and November 2021. He has further pleaded not guilty to the three counts of child cruelty and the single count of assault causing harm.

All of the alleged offending took place at two locations which were the family homes at the time.

Mr McGinn told the jury the prosecution evidence would be that the two rape allegations were against an alleged background of the accused demanding sex much more than his wife was comfortable with.

He said the evidence of the child complainants would be that there was “an atmosphere of fear and suppressed — and sometimes expressed — violence” in the family home. 

He said these two complainants were particularly targeted by the accused and were subjected to “verbal anger and unreasonable chastisement” almost constantly throughout their childhood.

The allegations came to light via a referral from Tusla regarding a younger child. During the Tusla assessment, the child’s mother was interviewed and “she revealed she had been raped”, Mr McGinn said.

Former wife's evidence

In her evidence, the man’s former wife told the court they met in 2004 and married in 2007, having lived together for a year. She said while on honeymoon in 2007, the accused asked to have sex up against the window of their hotel room and she said no as she was afraid of being seen.

“He wouldn’t take no for an answer and he pushed me towards the window. I was in shock. I told him I had begun my cycle,” she said. They didn’t have sex and there was no other conversation about it.

She said prior to this incident, there had been no issues in the relationship. She said there was a lot of control in the marriage.

She said in an incident in June 2009, they were lying in bed and their newborn baby was lying in a cot in the same bedroom. She said the accused said he wanted to have sex and she told him no because she was exhausted.

“He wouldn’t take no for an answer. He put his left arm over me to trap my arms and used his right arm to pull down my pyjama bottoms. I kept saying no. He just laughed it off like it was a joke,” she testified.

She said a few days later, she spoke to him about it and told him “you do realise what you done could constitute rape”. She testified “he just sort of smirked at me and he said husbands don’t rape their wives”.

She said there was constant pressure to have sex if he wanted to, telling the jury: “If I said no, you got a huffy personality, you were walking on egg shells.” 

She said the atmosphere in the house became very tense. She said she began saying no to him more frequently around 2018 and she asked him to consider having a vasectomy.

“He told me I would have to put out a lot more before he would ever consider getting something like that done,” she said.

She described an incident at a wedding reception in 2012, when the accused grabbed her hand and pulled her out of her seat, squeezing her hand. She said he took her up to their hotel room and told her she was “a disgrace” and that he was ashamed of her.

Anger management therapy

She said she told him he had “serious anger issues”. She told the jury the accused had once told her he had been sent for anger management therapy in Templemore Garda training college.

She described an incident in 2018 where they were having a disagreement over some garden furniture and she got annoyed and told him to “just shut up”.

“He completely lost it, he came in so hard, he put his finger into my chest and he was roaring into my face,” she said. She said her five-year-old daughter was standing beside her and after the accused walked off she said: “Daddy looked like a monster.” 

She described another alleged incident in 2021 in which the accused became upset because he thought she was reading “an explicit book”.

“He grabbed hold of my wrist, he smiled into my face, and said nobody likes you, your friends don’t like you,” she said. She said she left the family home for a few weeks and moved into her mother's home.

She said the couple tried marriage counselling but “it didn’t work out” and in June 2021 she again decided to leave, taking the children and moving into a relative’s house.

She said she tried desperately to find somewhere to live but she couldn’t afford anything and in November 2021, she moved back in with her husband.

She said the atmosphere was again very tense and he was demanding sex “practically every night”. She said she would go along with it.

She said in the weeks that followed, there was an incident where the accused raped her in an upstairs room. She said he had called her upstairs to ask her to help him find something and when she went up he said he wanted sex.

She said all the children were downstairs and she told him “absolutely not”.

“I kept saying no, he said he didn’t care,” she said. She said he pulled down her leggings and raped her.

She said afterwards she was shocked and felt numb and decided that was the end of the marriage. She told the jury she slept on the coach for the next few years and the accused slept in the bedroom.

She said it was a very tense situation. She said she continued to wash his clothes and cook his dinner. “I didn’t want any arguments”.

She said she didn’t know who to go to adding: “I didn’t trust the guards”. She said she told a friend in March 2023 and this helped.

“Talking to her was validating. In my head, I knew it was rape but it’s a very hard thing to admit,” she said.

The trial continues.