A young Co Meath girl alleged in evidence via video-link that a married man sexually assaulted her and threatened to kill her if she told anyone.
The 42-year-old father of two has pleaded not guilty at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court to two charges of sexually assaulting the girl in his home on the night of October 26th-27th, 1996, between 10 p.m. and 8 a.m.
Mr Barry White SC (with Mr Luan O Braonain), defending, asked the alleged victim how she was threatened and she replied: "He put on a `hard' face and left the room." She said the light was turned off.
Mr White suggested to her in cross-examination on the second day of the trial that if there was no light on she could not see what type of face he had on. She denied his suggestion that all that happened was the accused had dressed her in her sleeping suit while she was sleeping on the couch and then put her to bed in the same bedroom as her sister.
The now 13-year-old alleged victim told Mr White she was afraid to ask the accused to take her home after what counsel suggested were "all these dreadful things that happened". "I was frightened. I was really scared and my sister and I were having a good time. I was afraid he was going to do something to her as well."
The accused's wife invited her to stay another night. She rang her mother and decided to stay.
Mr White noted she did not go to gardai until March 6th, 1997, and that in a second statement, on March 18th, she said the accused was playing a video which was about two girls who had been raped.
He said in her first statement she could not remember what was on the screen but suddenly 18 months later she did. "I knew all the time but I just couldn't think of it on the day," she replied.
Counsel also suggested she neglected to say the accused had a "hard" face on him and had supposedly threatened to kill her. "I was frightened," she said and started to cry.
The girl's mother told counsel nothing had stuck out that was unusual about her daughter when she arrived home on Monday.