Sister was a ‘completely different person’ after alleged attempted rape, trial hears

Isabel Hayes and Eimear Dodd

A sister of one of the four women allegedly abused by their sports coach around 50 years ago has said she was a “completely different person” the day after he allegedly attempted to rape her.

The woman told prosecution counsel in the Central Criminal Court trial that her sister changed after a particular day in August 1975.

“She was very angry, very distrustful, very aggressive,” the woman said. “Just a completely different person, and we didn't know why.”

The victim in question, who is the third complainant in the case, was earlier cross-examined by Patrick Gageby on Friday. She denied his assertion that she was lying about the man ever molesting or attempting to rape her.

It is alleged that the now 77-year-old man indecently assaulted her in the early 1970s and attempted to rape her on one occasion when she was aged around 12.

He has pleaded not guilty to 41 counts of indecent assault and one count of attempted rape on dates between 1971 and 1975 when she was aged between eight and 12 years old.

In total, the man is charged with 74 counts of sexually abusing four girls in the 1970s and 1980s. He has pleaded not guilty to a total of 73 counts of indecent assault and one count of attempted rape.

The offences are alleged to have occurred in various locations in the State on dates between 1971 and 1981.

The man has pleaded guilty before the jury to a further five counts of indecently assaulting one of these complainants – the first complainant - on dates between May and September 1976. He can’t be named for legal reasons.

The jury has heard that it is the prosecution’s case that the alleged abuse took the form of kissing, inappropriate touching, digital penetration, forced oral sex and – in relation to the third complainant – attempted rape.

Third complainant

The third complainant has told the jury that the man sexually abused her in his car after he offered her a lift, in the sports complex and at a derelict house.

She said the abuse started when she was around eight and stopped after he allegedly attempted to rape her in a sports complex in the summer of 1975.

Gageby put it to the woman on Friday that she was never given lifts by the man “at all”.

“I take it you disagree with me,” he said.

“Wholeheartedly,” the woman replied.

Gageby put it to the woman that there was “no indecency or molesting on (the man's) part” at any of the alleged locations. “I'm suggesting to you none of that occurred,” he said.

“You're trying to say I'm lying, is that what you're saying?” the complainant said.

When Gageby replied, “Yes”, the woman responded, “Well, you're wrong.”

The woman earlier told the court she stopped wearing skirts and started wearing jeans in an effort to protect herself from the alleged abuse.

Throughout his cross-examination, Gageby put it to the woman several times that she “still took the lifts.”

“Yes, naive and stupid as it was,” the woman replied when defence counsel asked the question for the final time.

“Even though you were sufficiently clued in to avoid wearing skirts?” Gageby said.

“I didn't want his finger up my vagina,” the woman replied.

After a short break, prosecution counsel, James Dwyer, asked the woman in re-examination what her state of mind was when she got the lifts from the accused man.

“I would say I was almost on automatic pilot,” the woman said. “It was routine. It had become normalised.”

Sister's evidence

The woman's sister also gave evidence at the trial on Friday. She described how they both attended a sports camp in the summer of 1975, and they were both very excited to take part.

On the day of the alleged attempted rape, which the court has heard occurred in a changing room at the camp, the woman said she could not find her sister at lunchtime, which she said she thought was strange.

She outlined how she searched the complex for her sister, but stopped short of entering the changing rooms, as they were out of bounds at lunch.

She said she saw her sister at the end of lunchtime when she “burst into the gym”. “She ran over to me and was grabbing at me,” the woman said, adding her sister was “in a state of absolute panic and hysteria”.

She said after that day, her sister was a “very different person”.

Fourth complainant

The fourth complainant also told the jury that the man touched her inappropriately in his car while giving her a lift to training when she was around 13.

The man has pleaded not guilty to one count of indecently assaulting her on a date between 1980 and 1981.

She said she and her brother were usually collected by the man together, except for one occasion, when she was by herself.

It was winter time, and the man opened the door for her to get into the front passenger seat, which she did.

She said that after she got into the car, the man stared at her, then put his right hand on her knee. She said he moved his hand up her knee, over her clothes, towards her groin area.

She told the man to take his hands off her or she would tell her father. The man removed his hand and made a negative comment about her looks, then started the car.

During cross-examination, she told Gageby that there was usually very little conversation in the car and she had no memory of the man saying hello when she got into the front passenger seat that day.

When asked if she “rebuffed” the man “robustly”, the woman replied: “I was assertive and confident in what I said would happen”, adding that she did not tell her father.

She told Gageby that she “froze” and that while the touching lasted “possibly only seconds”, it appeared like it was “happening slowly” and was “surreal”.

'Very trapped'

She said she felt “very trapped” and “would have been sexually very unaware” at the time.

Gageby put it to the woman that his client is “very clear that he did nothing of the sort to you”. The woman replied: “Is that a question? He absolutely did”.

The woman’s brother also gave evidence, telling jurors that he couldn’t remember if any of his siblings were also collected by the man on occasions when he gave him a lift to training.

The man has pleaded not guilty to 29 counts of indecent assault in relation to the first complainant on dates between 1975 and 1977. The guilty pleas he entered are in relation to her.

In relation to the second complainant, the man has denied two counts of indecently assaulting this woman on dates between 1975 and 1977.

The trial continues before Judge Mícheál O'Higgins and the jury.