Woman tells court of rape claim

A Cavan woman has claimed at the Central Criminal Court that she was raped and sexually assaulted by a Meath man when she was…

A Cavan woman has claimed at the Central Criminal Court that she was raped and sexually assaulted by a Meath man when she was eight or nine years old.

The now 29-year-old woman also agreed she had made complaints of sexual abuse against other named men.

The man has pleaded not guilty to charges of rape and indecent assault on two dates between August and December 1988 at an address in Co Cavan.

The complainant told prosecuting counsel Paul Coffey SC that it was dark on both occasions she alleges the accused assaulted her.

READ MORE

The first incident happened when she was going to a nearby shop and she encountered the accused standing outside his house. She said he took her around the back of his house into a shed before he took her into the house and undressed her on a bed before indecently touching her.

She told Mr Coffey that after a while he said his girlfriend was coming and he stopped. He then brought her to a shop, bought her sweets, and told her not to tell anyone what had happened.

The woman said that some weeks later he took her into her home and raped her. She was crying and asking him to stop and he replied: "Shout as loud as you like because nobody is going to hear you."

She told defence counsel Patrick Gageby SC, in cross-examination, that she couldn't see anyone else in the house when he indecently assaulted her and she couldn't say how long it went on for. "He could have been sexually attacking me for a few minutes or longer. It's like a lifetime ago now."

She told Mr Gageby in further reply that she wasn't sure of the times the alleged offences happened but recalled that it was dark each time.

She agreed with Mr Gageby that she had made complaints against other named men whom she claimed had sexually assaulted her.

The complainant denied Mr Gageby's suggestion that the accused never raped or sexually assaulted her.

Sgt Christopher McCormack told the prosecuting counsel that the accused was arrested on suspicion of rape some days after the woman made a formal complaint in 2002. The accused denied he raped or sexually abused the woman or that he ever had any sexual contact with her. "It's all lies," he told gardaí.

Sgt McCormack told Mr Gageby, in cross-examination, that gardaí had neither maps, photographs nor any other details of the places where the alleged offences happened.

The trial continues.