A complainant in a family sexual abuse trial has denied that he made rape allegations against his cousin to deflect attention after he was accused of raping another family member.
The third complainant in an abuse trial of five members of an extended family gave evidence on Tuesday. The 30-year-old man alleges his 38-year-old cousin anally raped him on two occasions when he was a child.
A 66-year-old man and his three sons, aged 38, 40 and 41, are on trial at the Central Criminal Court, charged with numerous counts of sexually abusing four members of their extended family, who were all children at the time.
The 63-year-old wife of the oldest man is also on trial, charged with assaulting her nephew and granddaughter and assisting one of her sons who allegedly anally raped her granddaughter.
The court has heard the alleged offences occurred between 1999 and 2005 in various locations around the country. The jury has been told the complainants and the accused are all part of an extended family.
There is a total of 126 counts on the indictment before the court. The five defendants deny all the charges against them.
On Tuesday, the third complainant told the court that he and some of his siblings were fostered by his aunt and uncle some time after the death of his father when he was seven. The aunt and uncle had a number of children, the court has heard.
Allegations
The complainant is the younger brother of the second complainant who gave evidence this week in relation to allegations against their uncle and aunt.
The man said on one occasion when they had travelled to visit other family members, he was sleeping in the car one night when his older cousin started “messing” and tickling him. He said his cousin then pulled down the driver's seat where he was seated before anally raping him.
The man said he started “screaming and shouting for him to stop”. Afterwards, he said his cousin told him he was “only messing”.
The man said this older cousin also used to take him for drives to get petrol or to go to the shops. He said the second time he was anally raped was on one such occasion when his cousin parked the car opposite a graveyard. He said he screamed and shouted at him to stop, which he eventually did.
Under cross-examination from Dominic McGinn SC, defending the cousin, the man said he was not sure what age he was when the alleged rapes occurred, but that he might have been between 10 and 12. “I can't remember the exact time, I try to forget it,” he said.
The court heard the family had extensive involvement from social services. Mr McGinn put it to the man that he never told any social workers that he had been sexually abused.
“Who would want to stand up and say that to somebody?” the man replied.
Mr McGinn put it to the man that he spoke with a solicitor in relation to compensation, which the court has heard some members of his extended family received in relation to their care. The man agreed before adding that he could not recall the details.
The man agreed with Mr McGinn that a female member of his family has accused him of raping her and this case is still before the courts.
Mr McGinn said the man went to gardaí with the abuse allegations against his cousin in 2018 “when you knew she was making these allegations”.
“Apart from trying to get compensation, one of the reasons you decided to make a statement was to deflect attention away from your own behaviour,” Mr McGinn said.
“That's a lie,” the man replied.
The trial continues before Ms Justice Mary Ellen Ring and a jury.
