A young man told a jury yesterday his foster mother was fully aware her husband was sexually abusing him and his brother but did nothing about it. He told Dublin Circuit Criminal Court his foster mother once caught her husband and the two boys naked in sexual activities in their sittingroom but never mentioned the matter again.
He said she would also rap the window of the accused man's photographic studio on other occasions when leaving the house. Much of the sexual activity happened in her absence from the house over weekends, he claimed.
The witness outlined instances of sexual activity over several years. He was giving evidence on the second day of the trial of a 50year-old married man who denies 115 charges of buggery, gross indecency and indecent assault of his two foster sons in the 1980s.
The witness, now in his 20s, claimed his foster father raped him in his car in a laneway several times in 1985 after they filmed wedding receptions, children's parties, confirmations and other events.
He told Judge Joseph Mathews and the jury of seven men and five women that on the occasion his foster mother caught him and his brother masturbating her husband she had returned unexpectedly from a visit to a neighbour.
The witness said the accused got a job as a care worker in a children's home in the Dublin area and on one occasion invited him to help because of staff shortage. He helped with an outing to Wicklow for four or five children aged from three to 14 years.
That night he stayed in a staff room in a single bed. His foster father came up. They had sexual activity in the accused man's double bed. That was the last time it happened.
"I was beginning to feel guilty about these activities at this time because I had a girlfriend and was trying to come to terms with my sexuality," he said.
In further reply to Mr Denis Vaughan Buckley SC, prosecuting, he said he never told anyone about these activities until he became sexually involved with a prominent Co Dublin citizen.
Portions of several videorecordings of events were played for the jury, with the witness detailing alleged sexual activities which happened on these occasions.