A woman has been convicted of facilitating the rape of her daughter by her brother – the child’s uncle – more than 20 years ago.
The woman was convicted by a Central Criminal Court jury of one count of rape and two counts of sexual assault of her daughter. Her brother was convicted of one count of raping the girl, who was aged between 3½ and 15 years at the time of the alleged abuse.
Jurors were unable to reach a verdict in relation to a third accused, a man who had been accused of the oral rape of the girl. They had deliberated for 10 hours and 15 minutes.
The three defendants had denied any wrongdoing and pleaded not guilty to a total of 21 charges. They cannot be named for legal reasons.
Jurors on Monday told Ms Justice Eileen Creedon they had verdicts on some charges, but were unable to reach a verdict on other counts.
The woman, who is in her 50s, was on trial accused of 13 counts of sexual assault of her daughter on dates between 2000 and 2014.
She was found guilty of one count of rape, in that she facilitated the rape of the complainant by her uncle between 2003 and 2004. She was also convicted of two counts of sexual assault at a family-owned holiday home.
The jury acquitted her of two counts of sexual assault and was unable to reach a verdict on two further counts.
The jury was previously directed by Ms Justice Creedon to return not guilty verdicts on a further seven counts of sexual assault for legal reasons.
The complainant’s uncle, who is in his 40s, had pleaded not guilty to five counts of rape and one count of oral rape on dates between 2003 and 2012, all at the family home.
He was convicted of one count of raping the girl on a date between 2003 and 2004.
Jurors were unable to reach a verdict on a further count of rape and on the oral rape charge.
The judge previously directed the jury to return not guilty verdicts in relation to three further counts of rape for legal reasons.
The third accused, a man aged in his 50s, had pleaded not guilty to one count of oral rape between 2008 and 2009 at the same address. The jury heard he was a friend of the accused woman’s then partner. The jury was unable to reach a verdict on this count.
Ms Justice Creedon thanked jurors for the time and attention they had given the case and excused them from jury service for seven years.
She remanded the woman and man into custody and set a sentence date in October. The third accused was remanded on continuing bail to the same date for the prosecution to seek instructions from the Director of Public Prosecutions.
The complainant told the jury she lived with her mother, uncle and three other adult relatives when she was a child. All of the adults had issues with alcohol.
Her evidence was that she was 3½ when her mother first sexually assaulted her in their bedroom, telling her it was a secret. She said her mother sexually assaulted her on other occasions, including at the family-owned holiday home, when she was around four.
She could not recall how often the alleged abuse occurred, but said it stopped when she was 12, except for a final incident when she was 15.
The complainant described being aged about 5½ when she was raped for the first time by her uncle.
She had been watching TV in his bedroom and her mother left the room, returning with him. Her mother remained in the room, and afterwards, took her to their bedroom.
She outlined other occasions during which she said her uncle raped her, including an oral rape when she was around eight.
The complainant said she saw her mother and uncle engage in sex with each other while she was present in a room, when she was around six. She said she normalised what was happening and it did not occur to her to tell anyone about it.
She said a friend of her mother’s then-partner orally raped her when she was 13, telling her during it that “your mother knows”.
She made a statement to gardaí about a separate matter in 2015, but said she did not make any allegations of a sexual nature then because she was afraid of the gardaí and had “blocked” out what had happened.
When interviewed by gardaí, the three defendants denied the allegations made against them. The complainant’s mother and uncle both said there was no alcohol dependency in the house.
The complainant’s mother denied sexually assaulting her daughter, or facilitating or being present when her brother allegedly raped her daughter for the first time.
“That’s very vicious. I don’t understand that at all,” she said, in response to the allegation that the complainant saw her and her brother engage in sex with each other.
The complainant’s uncle said the allegations he raped his niece were “mind-boggling”. He denied raping the girl in his bedroom while her mother was present and ever engaging in sex with his sister, the complainant’s mother.
When interviewed by gardaí, the second man said he “never touched that lady”, swearing it on his parents’ graves.
