The father of a woman on trial accused of making false rape allegations against him, told gardaí that "from the day she was born she was bad" and she made the claims because he was seeking custody of her children.
His daughter has pleaded not guilty to 13 charges of making false statements to gardaí from May 15th, 2002 to July 31st, 2002 under section 12 of the Criminal Law Act.
The 34-year-old woman, who cannot be named for legal reasons, made 13 alleged false statements claiming he raped and sexually abused her from the age of six and was the father of one of her children. She then made a 14th statement withdrawing her allegations.
Her father told prosecuting counsel Dominic McGinn that she had been a "troublesome child" who had been committed to an institution aged 15 to be treated for "drinking problems" and had run away from home on several occasions.
He denied her allegation that her oldest child was born as a result of being raped by him and said he knew who the father was. He also denied all the allegations of rape made against him in her statements.
The man told Mr McGinn that his daughter had two further children with a partner who later died. He said that her three children were eventually taken into care by social services and at this point himself and his wife began seeking custody of the children who now live with them.
He agreed with Mr McGinn that he had difficulties reading and that part of the allegations regarding his sending text messages to his daughter could not be true.
The man agreed with defence counsel Gerry O'Brien SC that he told gardaí that his daughter had made the allegations against him because he was in a custody battle with her for her children.
He also agreed that he had told gardaí "from the day she was born she was bad" and that she was "not fit to be a mother". He denied an allegation put to him that he had abducted one of the children for a period.
He said it was not possible that he drove his daughter to a Garda station to withdraw her statements against him because he did not drive and had neither a licence nor a car. He agreed that his daughter had sought a barring order against him but said she had not turned up in court and it had not been served. He agreed there had been a protection order in place ordering him to keep away from his daughter.