Social workers failed to inform gardaí that a child had withdrawn accusations that he was sexually abused by his parents from the age of six, a jury has been told.
The trial of the parents has previously heard that the boy told a social worker in February 2015 that the sexual abuse allegations, which include claims he was raped with a poker and forced to have sex with his mother, were “not real”.
On Tuesday defence counsel Colman Cody SC in closing argument told jurors that details of the retractions only came to the notice of gardaí and defence lawyers after a barrister came across them while going through the files of the child protection agency Tusla.
The jury is expected to begin deliberations on Wednesday on 22 counts. The accused had faced 82 counts but 60 of these were withdrawn from the jury following legal argument.
The boy’s father faces nine counts of rape, nine of raping the boy with a poker and one of cruelty. The mother faces two counts of sexual assault relating to allegations she had sex with the boy and one of cruelty. Both parents have pleaded not guilty to the allegations which are submitted as having occurred between 2007 and 2011 in their Waterford home.
Mr Cody, who is acting for the child’s father, said his client believes social workers are to blame for “brainwashing” the child into making the allegations after he was taken into care in 2011.
He suggested there was “perhaps more than just a kernel of truth” to this belief in light of the actions of the social workers.
Gardaí travelled to the United Kingdom to reinterview the boy in February 2016 after they were made aware of the retraction. During this interview the child said the sexual abuse did happen and he had only said it did not because he did not want to go through with the trial.
‘Affront to justice’
Counsel said when a social worker was asked why she did not disclose the retraction to gardaí the year before, she “blandly” said she thought she had told a female garda involved in the case. During the trial all female investigating gardaí denied receiving such information.
“I am angry about this ladies and gentlemen,” said Mr Cody. “It’s not good enough; it’s an affront to justice, it’s an affront to common sense.”
He said the episode demonstrated that as far as social workers were concerned “there was only one narrative and they weren’t going to countenance anybody, even (the child) saying anything different”.
The family home was “not little house on the prairie, it wasn’t idyllic but it was a home of love affection and care”, said Mr Cody. He said the boy was a child capable of great love and affection but “was also a child capable of making things up and embellishing them”.
Counsel said one legacy of this case is the boy and his parents will likely never have a relationship again and asked jurors to “prevent another legacy, a miscarriage of justice”.
John O’Kelly SC, who is defending the child’s mother, questioned how the boy could have had sex with his client when he was “years from puberty”.
“I know that puberty ages having been coming down but I don’t believe that anyone has suggested that a child could be at puberty at seven or eight years old age,” he said.
“It’s simply unbelievable. It’s in the same league as the other suggestion that a child was uninjured after having a poker inserted in their anus and turned clockwise and anti-clockwise for 15 minutes.”
Counsel said there was a “massive question mark” over the boy’s testimony. He said there was no reliable evidence because the boy has shown “he will make things up at the drop of a hat”.
In his closing address to the jury Mr Justice Robert Eagar said the child’s allegations of sexual abuse have not been corroborated.
He said the jury can return a guilty verdict but they must treat the boy’s evidence with extra care.
“In the past allegations of sexual abuse have been completely fabricated for many reasons or no reason at all,” he said.
