A 19-year-old Co Louth woman told the Central Criminal Court she had been raped and sexually assaulted by her neighbour from the age of eight until her late teens.
She told a jury she did not complain during the years of the alleged offences because the accused had threatened to hit or slap her.
She said the accused ran from a bedroom when her parents returned home during the last sexual encounter on February 9th, 1997.
Her parents found it "a little bit strange" that the back door had been locked but she later told them she had locked it.
She said on other occasions, he had sex with her in the hallway of her house so he could check for her parents by looking through a glass panel on the door.
The court was told that after the first alleged sexual encounter, in the bathroom of the man's home, he said: "It's our secret, don't tell anyone, you're my little girl."
She and her brother had been staying with him after their parents had an accident in 1989. She realised the way in which the accused was rubbing her chest was wrong but said she didn't complain because she was afraid.
He would have sex with her up to three times a week, she told the jury.
The 53-year-old accused has pleaded not guilty to having committed 14 offences. He denies seven charges of indecent assault, three of forced oral sex, three of having unlawful carnal knowledge when she was under 15 years old, and another of unlawful carnal knowledge of her when she was younger than 17 but older than 15.
The offences took place in the accused's house, his van, his boat and in her house, the court heard.
Cross-examined by defence counsel Mr Diarmuid McGuiness SC, she agreed that she and her family were friendly with the accused and his wife. She also agreed her statement to gardai was one year and eight months out in estimating the dates she stayed in the accused's house after her parents had an accident.
"There was a lot of things going on in my head. I had to tell my parents about it and make a statement at the same time," she said.
The trial continues.