The brother of a woman who alleges repeated rape by him in the family home in south Dublin in the 1970s has said all her allegations of sexual abuse against various people "are absolutely and totally made-up lies".
Peter Murphy jnr told Dublin County Coroner's Court yesterday that further allegations of rape made against him by another sister, Frances Murphy, at the inquest on Wednesday were "totally incorrect".
Mr Murphy was giving evidence at an inquest into the death on an unidentified infant found stabbed to death in a laneway in Dún Laoghaire, south Dublin, 34 years ago.
Cynthia Owen, who claims to be the mother of the infant, said she was conceived as a result of sexual abuse in the family home in Dalkey.
Under questioning from Michael Forde SC, for Ms Owen, about whether he was the perpetrator of alleged sexual abuse against some of his family members, Mr Murphy replied: "My opinion is very simple. All the accounts of sexual abuse inside and outside of my family are totally and absolutely made-up lies."
The inquest heard a statement yesterday from Ciarán Hutton, a former childhood friend of Mr Murphy, which stated that his friend told him he had "had sex with his sister. I was only 11 or 12. I stopped hanging around with him then."
Ms Owen has alleged that the woman who killed her infant had attempted to drown her on the same night before dumping the baby's body in a laneway in Dún Laoghaire.
The inquest also heard a statement from Ms Owen's late mother, Josephine Murphy, which was given to the Garda in Dún Laoghaire in 2005. Ms Murphy died last year.
In the statement, read out in court yesterday, Mrs Murphy denied that she murdered an infant in the family home.
"Cindy [ Ms Owen] has made allegations that she gave birth to a baby in our home at 4 White's Villas in Dalkey in April 1973 and I stabbed it with needles and dumped it in a laneway. Cindy never gave birth to a baby in our house."
Her statement continued that she first heard about a dead infant's discovery in Dún Laoghaire through the newspapers.
Mr Murphy told the inquest he was away at Daingean reformatory school for larceny and other offences when his sister alleged she was pregnant and gave birth. However he said he was home five times altogether during that year and he did not believe his sister was pregnant during this time.
He described the family home in Dalkey as "happy" and said he was "close friends" with Ms Owen as a child growing up.
He said his sister had a "turbulent relationship" with their mother.
"I know Cindy always loved my mother and my mother always loved Cindy."