Woman tells of alleged rapes by her brother at Irish criminal trial

A trial involving seven men accused of familial sexual abuse continued this Thursday at the Central Criminal Court.

A woman has told a Central Criminal Court jury that her older brother raped her on separate occasions when she was 16 and 19.

The now 26-year-old woman also testified that this man's partner told her that she had allegedly found a porn search on his phone for “raping drunk sister”.

The woman was giving evidence at the Central Criminal Court trial of seven men accused of familial sexual abuse. She is the second complainant in the case and is to be referred to as Complainant 2 in reporting of the case.

Her older brother (34) has pleaded not (NOT) guilty to sexually assaulting her on a date between 2005 and 2006. This man, to be referred to as Accused C, has further pleaded not (NOT) guilty to two counts of rape and one count of anal raping her between 2016 and 2019.

He is also facing a further 46 counts against two other sisters, to be referred to as Complainant 1 and Complainant 3.

His six co-accused, who are aged between 32 and 55, are on trial in relation to a total of 98 counts against them pertaining to Complainant 1, a deaf woman. The abuse against this woman is alleged to have occurred within the State over a 17 year period from 1996 until 2013.

The seven accused men are her three uncles and four brothers. They deny all the charges against them. None of the parties involved can be named for legal reasons.

The woman told Roisin Lacey SC, prosecuting on Thursday, October 16, that she had been drinking at a pub when she was 16, then went to Accused C's house and asked to stay over.

He let her in and offered her a drink. She said she remembered taking a few sips, then “had no memory until I woke up”.

She said she must have passed out in a chair in the sitting room. She said she woke up on a bed lying on her front with a pillow over her head and Accused C “forcing himself into my vagina”.

The woman said she felt sore in her back passage and vagina. She said she didn't know if he did anything at her back passage but assumed he had.

She said she squirmed but couldn't get away and shouted for him to stop. Her brother didn't say anything to her and she passed out again a few seconds later.

She said she woke up the next morning naked and on the floor. She got dressed, went home and showered. She said she noticed she was bleeding from her bum. 

She said she was in her brother's house a couple of years later, looking after a baby while his partner was out. She said Accused C “tried to tell me that he didn't force himself on me, that I was wanting it and couldn't remember because I was drunk”.

She said Accused C told her that his partner had found something on his phone and he “wants to be the first to tell me it was not rape and I wanted it”.

He stood behind her and “brushed his penis area off my bum”, then she slide past him, she said. She told her brother to “cop on” and the baby was there, she told the court.

She said she was shocked and stood outside the house until his partner returned. She said she didn't tell anyone what happened that night, adding that she thought ”I was just wanting it not to be true”.

The woman agreed with Ms Lacey that she had a conversation at some point with Accused C's partner, who told her that she'd found a porn search on his phone for “raping drunk sister”.

Complainant 2 said this made her feel scared that her brother's partner knew. “It was just more real, it made me sick physically”.

She told the jury about another alleged incident which took place when she was 19 in 2019. She , Accused C and his partner were drinking in their house in the summertime.

She said it was summertime and they were drinking vodka and some beers. The woman said her brother's partner got very drunk very fast and went to bed in the early afternoon.

The woman said she was “pretty drunk” and after her brother's partner went to bed, she had a few more drinks with Accused C.

She said they were talking and “next thing I know I'm on the couch”. She said she was face down and her brother was “putting his penis into my vagina”.

She said she couldn't remember what she was wearing and that the incident lasted two or three minutes. She said she felt drunk and “not good” afterwards, then went to bed.

She said she didn't tell anyone what had happened. She told the jury this alleged incident took place before she was arrested by gardai in the summer of 2019 for a public order offence.

Under cross-examination by Karl Finnegan SC, defending Accused C, she denied that she had had no memory of the alleged incident which occurred in the bedroom until her brother's partner told her about the porn search.

“I didn’t have exact details but I had memory,” she said. She said her brother's partner told her about what she found, but didn't show her a phone.

Mr Finnegan noted that the woman's second garda statement from October 2021 states she told them she was unsure about her memory of the second alleged incident in the bedroom.

He asked if she had been concerned when she was making this statement that she was telling gardai “false or inaccurate memory” about the second alleged incident in the bedroom.

“I didn’t want to exaggerate. I didn’t want to give details, I wasn’t sure about. That’s why I say thinking or not sure,” she replied.

She disagreed with Mr Finnegan that the first time she mentioned waking up on the bed was during her direct evidence and that her garda statement only refers to her waking up on the floor.

She also rejected his contention that she was so intoxicated that she “can't form continuous memories of that night”.

Mr Finnegan suggested that she didn't know what happened that night. She replied: “that's what you make of it, I know what happened”.

Earlier in her direct evidence, Complainant 2 said she did not know Accused C when she was growing up and he did not live in the family home at that time.

She said he sexually assaulted her when she was six or seven in the bedroom she shared with two of her sisters after asking her to play hide and seek. She said “he went to try to kiss me” and “I said 'no, you do that with your girlfriend'”.

She said her older brother told her he didn't have a girlfriend, then pulled her towards him. She said he covered her mouth when she tried to scream, then turned her away from him before “squeezing” her vagina over her clothing.

She said he told her not to tell anyone. She said he left the room afterwards and she got into bed.  She said she pretended she had a sore ear when her mother later asked why she was upset.

The woman said she did not know when she first recalled this incident, adding that “when [Complainant 1] came forward with her statement, it brought back a lot of memories.”

The trial continues before Ms Justice Caroline Biggs and the jury.

As well as the charge pertaining to Complainant 2,  Accused C has pleaded not (NOT) guilty to 45 counts against his older sister, Complainant 1, comprising 22 counts of rape and 23 counts of anally raping her over a 12 year period between 2001 and 2013.

He has has pleaded not (NOT) guilty to one count of anal rape of his younger sister, Complainant 3, on a date between September 2013 and September 2014.

In relation to the counts pertaining to Complainant 1, Accused A (55) – her uncle - is accused of a single count of raping her on a date between December 2009 and April 2011.

Accused B (48) is accused of eight counts involving rape, oral rape and anal rape of the same woman - his niece - on dates between December 2008 and December 2010.

Three younger brothers of the main complainant, as well as Accused C, are accused of sexually abusing her over varying periods of time. 

Accused D (33) is accused of 22 counts of sexually abusing his sister over an 11 year period on dates between 2002 and 2013. He has pleaded not guilty to 19 charges of rape and three counts of anal rape.

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Accused E (32), is accused of 16 counts of sexual abuse against his sister over an eight year period  between 2003 and 2011. He has denied nine counts of anal rape and seven counts of raping her.

The fourth brother, Accused F (also 32), has denied five counts – three counts of anal rape and two counts of raping his sister on dates between 2007 and 2010.

Another uncle, Accused G (45), has denied a single count of raping her on a date between 1996 and 1997.