A young Galway man has been found guilty, by majority verdict, of one count of sexually assaulting his niece during a visit to her granny.
However, after over four hours of deliberation, the jury at Galway Circuit Court were unable to reach a decision last Tuesday on the remaining three counts of sexual assault.
During the case the jury heard that the 22-year-old man denied the four counts of sexual assault which the victim (18 ) alleged took place in his mother’s house in Co Galway on unknown dates in 2003.
Prosecuting barrister Conor Fahy said that the girl used to visit her grandmother regularly up until she was 14 years old and that her uncle had sexually abused her during these visits. He said that these assaults were done under the guise of so-called “games” when she was between 13 and 14 years old. The girl described these as kissing, massaging, licking, and lorry games.
The court heard that when the girl started secondary school she remembered going to her granny’s nearly every weekend and for a week in August. On one occasion she went to his bedroom where he made her lie on his bed and sexually assaulted her. When she asked him to stop, he pulled up her trousers and punched her.
The court heard that there had been an incident in the front room of the house and the girl’s granny (the mother of the accused ) had seen them through the window, took her out of the room and reprimanded her. Senior defence council Paul Flannery put it to the complainant that her grandmother denies that such an event occurred and that there were very few visits in 2003.
An official complaint was made to gardai on January 10, 2007, and on May 7, 2007, the accused came voluntarily to Togher Garda Station, Cork, and was arrested. Garda Henry Burke said that in his interview the accused said that he had problems with drink and had been homeless for a time. The accused also informed gardai that when he was six to seven years old his own father made him do oral sex for about six months and he had “flashbacks” everyday.
When the case resumed last Tuesday, the accused gave evidence that the “games” had “absolutely not” taken place. When asked by his counsel if his niece had visited on weekends in 2003 the accused replied: “I am 99 per cent sure she wasn’t in the house in 2003. That [the assaults] didn’t occur”.
He told the court that “what’s in her statement is not true at all... I can’t see why she made allegations”.
