A woman who alleges she was sexually abused by her older brother during her childhood has told a jury that she started going to the toilet in a friend’s back garden to avoid her sibling, until her mother spotted her.
“I got to be really fast on the stairs and I knew if I didn’t flush the toilet, he wouldn’t know I was in there,” she said.
The woman (49) claimed at the Central Criminal Court that she was sexually abused by her eldest brother in their family home on a number of occasions beginning in the summer of 1972 when she was eight.
The accused man has pleaded not guilty to three counts of indecent assault and two counts of unlawful carnal knowledge on dates unknown between June 1972 and August 1976.
Michael Durack SC, prosecuting, told the jury that the charges were listed in outdated terminology because it was an old case, and explained that indecent assault is technically sexual assault, while unlawful carnal knowledge should be treated as rape. The woman broke down during cross-examination and Ms Justice Iseult O’Malley adjourned the trial until today.