A man has gone on trial at the Derry Crown Court charged with sexually abusing two young sisters when he was a lay preacher and senior member of the Free Presbyterian Church in Co Derry.
James Doherty (71), is originally from Co Donegal. Judge Gemma Loughran QC has ruled that neither his address nor the location of the Free Presbyterian church he attended could be made public in order to protect the identities of his alleged victims.
The sisters were aged six and seven when the offences allegedly took place. Mr Doherty denies committing 25 sex offences against the two sisters between August 1974 and July 1985. The charges include rape, buggery, committing an act of gross indecency with a child and indecent assault.
One of the sisters told the jury of 10 men and two women yesterday that the defendant had abused her in her home, where he was a frequent visitor, and in his car almost throughout her entire childhood.
Some of the alleged abuse occurred after she and the defendant had attended church functions.
On other occasions she said she was abused after she and Mr Doherty had attended country markets where Mr Doherty sold religious books and tapes from a stall. She said the markets did not take place on Sunday.
She told the jury that she came from a religious family and was brought up "on the ways of the Gospel and salvation".
Asked by Eilish McDermott QC, defending, why she had not reported the alleged offences to her parents, the witness replied: "James Doherty professed to be saved and to be very much a Christian and I definitely could not understand it, he was one of the main reasons why I did not follow my mother and father in their Christian tradition".
She said that at her husband's funeral in 2002, members of the church were asked to carry his coffin. "I was horrified when I saw James Doherty, after what he'd put me through, carrying my husband's coffin," she said.
Several months after the funeral, she mentioned general aspects of the allegations to a local Free Presbyterian minister.
"I wanted to make sure that Jimmy Doherty would not have been near other children in the church."
The trial continues.