Woman tells court of sexual abuse by her mother, uncle and family friend

Eimear Dodd

A woman has told a Central Criminal Court trial that she was sexually assaulted by her mother and raped by her uncle and a family friend when she was a child.

The complainant’s mother, her uncle, and another man face a total of 21 counts of sexual assault and rape, which allegedly occurred on dates between 2000 and 2014, mainly at the family home within the State.

The three defendants cannot be named for legal reasons. They deny wrongdoing and have pleaded not guilty to all charges.

The complainant on Thursday told Anne Marie Lawlor SC, prosecuting, that she spent her early childhood living with her mother, uncle and three other adult relatives.

She said the adults in the house all had issues with alcohol. “They drank all the time”, she said, adding that there could be physical fights. “It was very volatile, it was awful”.

She said her mother could get “really vicious” and sometimes “she drank until she passed out”.

She said her mother “punched and bit me” and could also be “very nasty verbally”.

The witness said she shared a room in this house with her mother until she was around eight or nine years old.

She said she was three and a half when her mother first sexually assaulted her. She said her mother guided her to carry out a sexual act, then told her it was a secret.

The complainant's mother, who is in her 50s, has pleaded not guilty to 13 counts of sexual assault. She also pleaded not guilty to one count of rape, in that she facilitated the rape of her daughter by her brother.

The complainant gave evidence that her mother sexually assaulted her on other occasions, including during a holiday at a family-owned holiday home when she was four.

She described one alleged incident of sexual assault by her mother during this holiday as “painful” and that it “really hurt”.

The witness said there was another sexual assault by her mother during this family holiday, which felt “weird”, but “didn't seem to hurt”.

She said she didn't understand why it was happening or why “she [her mother] was doing it”.

The witness said that her mother “stopped abusing me when I got my period” at the age of 12, but couldn't recall how many times the alleged abuse had occurred.

She said her mother came into her room when she was 15 and then sexually assaulted her. The witness said she pretended to be asleep, and her mother stopped.

She said she was about five-and-a-half and watching TV in her uncle's bedroom with her mother. The woman left the room, returning with the girl's uncle.

She said her uncle then raped her. The witness said it “really hurt” and was “really painful”.

She said her mother remained in the room, and afterwards, brought her back to their bedroom.

The complainant's maternal uncle, who is in his 40s, has pleaded not guilty to five counts of rape and one of oral rape.

The witness said she saw her mother and uncle engage in sex with each other while she was present in a room.

She said her uncle orally raped her in his bedroom on one occasion and raped her on other occasions in her bedroom when she was in her early teens and no longer sharing a room with her mother.

She described bleeding very heavily and being in a lot of pain when she was about 12. She said she believed it was a miscarriage as she has never experienced anything like it since. She said her mother said, “Oh, it’s your period, oh it’s nothing”.

When asked why she thought she could have been pregnant, she replied she had been raped by her uncle.

She agreed with Ms Lawlor that she had normalised what was happening. “It didn’t occur to me to speak to anyone about it. It felt normal, I know it’s not normal now,” she said.

She described how her mother started a new relationship and that they moved out of the family house to live with her mother's new partner. The witness said she, her mother and her mother's partner later moved back into the family home.

A man who was friends with her mother's partner was a visitor to the family home. On one occasion, when she was 13, he came into the room where she was playing on a PlayStation, then locked the door.

She said this man orally raped her, during which he told her “Your mother knows”. She said she left the room afterwards and didn't tell anyone what had happened.

She said she moved in with family friends when she was 17.

The witness said alcohol was still a factor for adult relatives, and Tusla had become involved with the family as there was “a lot of neglect”. She made a statement to gardai around this time, but did not tell them about the alleged sexual abuse.

She said she was afraid of the gardaí, but had also “blocked” away what had happened. “I couldn’t cope with it.”

The witness said she went to gardaí some years later, when she had moved to another part of the country and had been attending a rape crisis centre.

She told Desmond Dockery SC, representing her mother, during the cross-examination that she remembered the first time his client sexually assaulted her when she was three and a half.

He put to her that she had used the words “feel” and “believe” when answering. “It is a memory and I remember it happening”, she replied.

She told Mr Dockery that she remembered her mother telling her it was a secret, but did not know if her mother said anything else to her. She said she had no memory of not wanting to do it or of crying.

The witness told defence counsel she didn't remember what led to the incident, how long it lasted or when it ended.

When asked about the alleged incidents during the holiday at the family-owned holiday house, the witness said she could not say how long the trip lasted.

A second man, aged in his 50s, has pleaded not guilty to one count of oral rape. The jury has heard that he was a friend of the accused woman's then-partner.

The trial continues at the Central Criminal Court before Ms Justice Eileen Creedon and a jury.