A Co Cork schoolboy has denied he invented or concocted allegations that his remedial teacher raped him a number of times during special lunchtime classes.
"I could never make up a lie like that. That man raped me," he told a jury at the Central Criminal Court in cross-examination by Mr Blaise O'Carroll SC, defending.
The 51-year-old lay accused is pleading not guilty to charges of rape and sexual assault of the then 11 1/2-year-old boy on dates unknown between September 29, 1997, and February 19, 1998, during lunchtime remedial classes at the school, which is run by a religious order.
The alleged victim claimed that after his mother took him out of school the accused would phone her at their home and ask how he was and when he was coming back to school. He said the accused had offered to teach him at home because he was afraid all his hard work would "slip away".
He said he had not revealed all the abuse in the first two out of three statements he made to gardai because he was ashamed of what people would think of him.
The trial continues before Mr Justice Diarmuid O'Donovan and a jury.