A GIRL aged seven and a 13-year- old boy have given evidence via video link at the trial of their father who is accused of sexual and physical abuse of two children and of failing to provide his five children with adequate food and clothing.
The accused man, who cannot be named for legal reasons, has pleaded not guilty at the Central Criminal Court to the rape and sexual assault of his now 10- year-old daughter and the sexual assault of his now 13-year-old son in 2007.
He also pleaded not guilty to the wilful assault of his three sons in a manner likely to cause unnecessary suffering, injury to the children’s health or seriously affect their wellbeing on dates between January and September 2007.
He further denied the wilful neglect of all five children, now aged between seven and 14 years old, by failing to provide adequate clothing or food.
The 13-year-old boy told Isobel Kennedy SC, prosecuting, that his father kicked and punched him with his fists and also used shoes and belts to hit him. He said he was hit “everywhere” but particularly on his back.
Asked if his father did anything else to hurt him, he said “no”.
Asked by Blaise O’Carroll SC, defending, if it was a happy family, he said “kind of”. When asked if he felt loved by his mother and loved his mother, the boy replied “yes”. When asked if he loved his father he replied “no.”
Mr O’Carroll told the boy his father would say that he hit him “no more than a few slaps” as a reprimand if he and his brother were bold. The boy agreed that he had been bold on some occasions.
He was removed from the family home with his siblings in 2007, when he was aged 10. He was taken to a foster family where he lived for almost two years.
The foster mother told the court that when he was brought to her home, she saw “a small child, a very dirty child”. His trousers were half-way up his legs and his runners were dirty and full of holes.
His jumper was about two sizes too small. “He had no socks and he had no underwear,” she said.
She said he was quite hungry upon arrival so she made him some chicken nuggets and chips. She said when she put the plate on the table he put his hands over it “as if someone was going to take it from him”.
The woman said she went out and bought clothes for the boy and got him to take a shower. She said he could not understand that he had to shower and change his underwear every day.
She said it was discovered within a few weeks that the boy could not spell and was only able to read very basic words. She told Ms Kennedy that he “was actually quite a bright child” and when given encouragement, he was eager to learn and loved to get praise when he got his spellings and maths right.
The woman agreed with Mr O’Carroll that arrangements were made with the boy’s mother to get more of his clothes delivered for him but she said that when they arrived they were all too small for him.
She told Mr O’Carroll that the boy used to speak of his father “with excitement”. He told how his father used go take him on motor cross bikes and how he could jump out of cars as they were moving.
She said: “It was the excitement of things he was allowed to do when he was with his Dad.”
His seven-year-old sister told Ms Kennedy that she had shared a bedroom with her sister when she lived with her parents. She agreed with Mr O’Carroll during cross-examination that she had some toys at the house and said they had three televisions.
Asked if her father went to work every day, she said he would go shopping and he would “rob stuff, beer and all”. She also told the court her mother put her out in the rain when she was a baby. She referred to one night when her parents were “sexing” and her father put her cot outside the front door because she was crying.
The trial, before Ms Justice Elizabeth Dunne, is expected to hear evidence from other children in the family today.
