A WOMAN whose children used to play with the two daughters of a man on trial accused of the neglect and abuse of his five children, has said they did not appear cared for and giving them food was “like feeding Oliver Twist”.
The accused man, who cannot be named for legal reasons, has pleaded not guilty at the Central Criminal Court to the rape and sexual assault of his now 10-year- old daughter in September 2007 and the sexual assault of his now 13-year-old son between January and February 2007.
He has also pleaded not guilty to the wilful assault of his three sons in a manner likely to cause unnecessary suffering, injury to the children’s health or seriously affect their wellbeing on dates between January and September 2007.
He has further denied the wilful neglect of all five children, now aged between seven and 14 years old, by failing to provide adequate clothing or food.
The woman told Isobel Kennedy SC, prosecuting, that she lived across the road from a house rented by the family and her children use to play with the then eight- and four-year-old girls.
She said the children used to walk around outside without shoes prompting neighbours to tell them to go home and put something on their feet. They were always very hungry and when they saw visible food in her home such as fruit, they used to ask if they could have it.
She said she fed them sometimes and said “it was like feeding Oliver Twist”. She said the children did not appear to be well cared for.
Asked by Blaise O’Carroll SC, defending, if the girls were happy children, she replied: “I don’t think so.” She said she had no dealings with the accused but spoke to the mother of the girls sometimes on the street.
Asked if it was the mother who was looking after the children, she replied: “She was in the house but I don’t think you could say she was looking after them.”
A work colleague of the accused who stayed in his house for about a week told Ms Kennedy that there were quite a lot of arguments in the house over food and the children would ask him for food.
A garda who bought chips and soft drinks for the children on the day they were brought to the station in September 2007 said they were “obviously hungry” and “they ate almost everything I put in front of them”.
Ms Kennedy then read the jury transcripts of the accused man’s interviews with gardaí in January 2009. The man denied the sexual abuse of his daughter. “I am denying all of this unless I can take a lie detector test to prove my innocence,” he told gardaí.
He said that he and his wife had “an arrangement” that if the children were taken into care, he would “take the blame for everything” so she could get custody of the children.
He told gardaí the arrangement was now “non-existent” after he found out one of the children might not be his.
He said his wife had put the allegations of sexual abuse into their daughter’s head so she could get the children.
“I would like to see medical reports to back up these allegations,” he told gardaí.
Asked if he loved his children, he said: “Yes, they mean more to me than anything else in the world.” The trial continues.