A trial is underway at Galway Circuit Criminal Court after a 41-year-old Dublin man pleaded not guilty to sexually assaulting three sisters while holidaying on an island in Connemara during a two year period.
The man, who cannot be named for legal reasons, appeared before Judge Raymond Groarke on Tuesday and entered a plea of not guilty to six counts of sexually assaulting one sister on dates unknown between January 1, 1998 and December 31, 1999, one count of sexually assaulting another sister in or around New Year’s Day 2000, and three further counts of sexually assaulting a third sister in or around Christmas 1997, 1998, and 1999.
State barrister Conor Fahy told the jury at the start of the trial that the accused man had stayed in a holiday home near the complainants’ family home on several occasions. He said that it is the State’s case that during the man’s visits he would often socialise with the girls’ parents but would then sneak into their bedroom and sexually assault them.
The trial continues.
