Girl says young brother beat man to stop abuse

A nine-year-old boy tried to stop his sister being sexually abused by hitting her attacker with a hair brush, the Dublin Circuit…

A nine-year-old boy tried to stop his sister being sexually abused by hitting her attacker with a hair brush, the Dublin Circuit Criminal Court was told. The girl, now 14, said she and her brother were chased around their home by a workman after he had tried to abuse her. Her brother knocked the man's glasses off and she hit him in an attempt to escape. It was the first day of the trial of the 61-year-old man, who denies sexually assaulting the girl at her Louth home on December 11th, 1996. Giving evidence by video-link, the girl told Mr Roderick O'Hanlon, prosecuting, that the defendant came to the house to do repair work. After her mother left, he carried her to her bedroom and began sexually assaulting her. She ran off and told her brother.

Cross-examined by Mr Gerard Clarke SC, defending, she agreed she didn't clean up her room that day and her mother was later cross with her. She denied making up stories about the defendant to divert her mother's attention. She also denied trying to take the defendant's wallet from his jacket while he was working. Her brother, now 12, said he attacked the defendant with a brush and hit him about six times. His sister hit him three or four times. The trial continues before Judge Frank O'Donnell.