Woman alleges sex abuse by her four brothers

A woman who claims she was raped and sexually abused by her older brother over a number of years has told a jury she was also…

A woman who claims she was raped and sexually abused by her older brother over a number of years has told a jury she was also sexually abused by three other brothers.

The alleged victim, now aged 30, agreed with Mr Barry White SC, defending, in cross-examination, that she had alleged she was sexually abused three to five times a week by four of her brothers in the same eight-year timeframe.

She also alleged her six sisters who shared the same bedroom with her were aware of what was happening.

It was the second day of the trial before Mr Justice Kearns and a jury.

READ MORE

The 36-year-old defendant from Co Dublin has pleaded not guilty at the Central Criminal Court to a total of 13 charges of rape and sexual assault of his sister.

The charges include seven of indecent assault on dates unknown between March 1980 and March 1985, and six of rape on dates unknown between April 1981 and May 1988.

Mr Justice Kearns interrupted the hearing at one stage in the presence of the jury to warn the defendant to stop smiling and told him there was "nothing remotely funny" about the case.

Mr White (with Mr Coleman Fitzgerald) told the woman he was concerned as to why any of her six sisters who shared her bedroom did not wake during her alleged ordeals. She replied: "My sisters did know what was going on, they did wake."

He asked her why she had said in a statement to gardai that her sisters never woke when the boys entered the room and that there were no subsequent complaints to her mother. She replied: "When mother found my brother on top of me in the shed she could have put a stop to it but chose not to and that was her way of dealing with it."

Mr White noted that she claimed to be a light sleeper and asked her to explain how the defendant could have removed her panties and raised her night-dress in the upper bunk without alerting anyone else. She replied: "I would have been woken and just froze each time."

The alleged victim agreed with counsel she had a serious "falling out" with her mother and said her mother had accused her of dragging her name through the courts.

Earlier, the woman told Mr Ken Mills SC, prosecuting, that when she was seven months pregnant and asleep in her sister's bed she woke up to find her oldest brother raping her. "I tried to cry but I couldn't," she said.

The alleged victim said the abuse started when she was 11 when her mother told her to take the washing out to hang in a shed at the side of the house. Her brother was inside practising karate and he tripped her. He then opened her trousers and abused her.

Their mother then entered the shed to see why the washing was taking so long and her brother jumped off her. Her mother beat her up the stairs with a sweeping brush. She said she tried to tell her mother it was not her fault but she would not listen.

The alleged victim told Mr Mills that one to two weeks later she woke up to find her brother abusing her. She said this abuse continued regularly, once or twice a week, in her bed or the shed, until she was aged 18.

The trial continues today.