Man threatened to kill family of alleged rape victim, court hears
A 73-year-old father raped his daughter in the toilets of a McDonalds restaurant after threatening to kill her mother and brother if she told anyone, it has been alleged at the Central Criminal Court.
The accused with an address in Dublin has pleaded not guilty to sexually assaulting a son from the age of three to six and sexually assaulting and raping two daughters between the ages of four and 11.
The offences are alleged to have occurred in locations across the country including Dublin, Wexford and Cork between 1995 and 2002.
Defence counsel, Mr Blaise O’Carroll SC, defending, put it to the eldest complainant, that she had written a letter to her mother detailing the rape and threats.
She said the incident occurred after she had run away from a HSE residential care home to meet her father.
The now 19-year-old woman accepted she had written the letter and that its contents were true. It stated that the accused pushed her into the bathroom of the Dublin fast food restaurant and told her: “I promise if you tell anyone I will kill your mother and (your brother).”
She said he then raped her while telling her, “if you shout I’ll kill them.” She wrote that afterwards he did not get her any food and let her make her own way back to the care home.
“I hate (the accused) for what he has done to me”, the letter continued. “I only did what he wanted because he said he would kill my mother. My mother means everything to me.”
Mr O’Carroll put it to the witness that the McDonalds in question requires a key for the bathroom which you have to get at the counter.
The woman replied that she did not know how the door was opened as the accused had opened it.
The trial continues before Mr Justice George Birmingham and a jury of eight men and four women.
