A nun held a young girl by the ankles while a man raped her in her bed in a childcare centre, a jury has been told in the Central Criminal Court. The alleged victim, now 21, claimed she was raped first in this way when she was 10 and again around the time of her 12th birthday.
She also said the nun sometimes sexually abused her.
The former Order of Mercy nun, now 51, and a 50-year-old man both deny two charges of raping the woman and two of having unlawful carnal knowledge of her on dates from January 1st, 1987, to January 31st, 1990, in a childcare centre in the south of Ireland.
The former Order of Mercy nun, who was in charge of the centre at the time, also denies four further charges of indecently assaulting the woman in the same period.
Mr Denis Vaughan Buckley SC earlier told the jury that, under the Offences against the Person Act of 1861, a person who aided and abetted a rape as alleged in this case could be charged with the same offence as a principal.
Mr Vaughan Buckley told the jury that if it convicted the defendants on the rape charges, it did not have to consider the unlawful carnal knowledge charges. He added that if the jury acquitted the defendants of rape, but believed the alleged victim consented to sex with the male accused, it had to deal with the unlawful carnal knowledge charges because she was under 15 at the time and in law could not consent.
The alleged victim told Mr Vaughan Buckley she was taken into care when she was six and was very happy there at first. The nun was very nice and she went to a local school where she had friends.
She said she and another resident would sometimes sleep with the nun in her room where there were a double and a single bed joined together. The nun would sometimes sleep between them. The nun would sometimes come to her room at night and bring her to the toilet. She would then get into bed with her and caress her.
The alleged victim said the nun would buy clothes for her and other girls in the centre and bring them on holidays to Galway, Tralee and Dublin.
She recalled the nun and the male defendant coming to her room late one night when she was 10 years old. The light was off, but she could recognise them by the light from the hallway. She said the man undressed, got into the bed beside her and began caressing her. He then raped her, she said in tears. The nun sat on the bottom of the bed and held her ankles while this was happening.
She did not consent to what the man had done. She thought the nun was wearing a nightdress at the time.
She remembered her 12th birthday and friends and relatives attending. Around that time she was again abused by the man with the nun helping him. The alleged victim said she had her own room at this time and was scared when they came into it late at night. The man again undressed and got in beside her before raping her with the nun holding her ankles.
Cross-examined by Mr Patrick Gageby SC, for the male defendant, the alleged victim agreed she made her first complaint to gardai in 1996 and followed this with a number of statements and replies to queries. She agreed she was happy with the content of her statements and knew the concept of telling the whole truth.
She told the gardai she had been raped twice. She did not think she could be wrong about being 10 when it happened the first time just before the summer holidays. She also recalled the details of her 12th birthday party. The male defendant was not at the party. She knew it happened around then but could not be sure if it was a few days before or after it.
The hearing continues today before Mr Justice Carney.