A 74-year-old Co Kildare man has denied he raped and indecently assaulted his granddaughter on dates between her third and ninth birthdays.
Earlier the woman, who is now 23, told the jury at the Central Criminal Court that her father had raped her between her 11th and 13th birthdays and had been jailed for that sexual abuse. The jury was also told by Garda Kathleen Miller that when she and Det Garda Pat Donlon arrested the defendant he at first denied he even knew his granddaughter. The man has pleaded not guilty to two charges of raping her between January 1st, 1982, and January 1st, 1985, and 16 charges of indecently assaulting her on dates from 1977 to 1985.
The man told Mr Anthony Sammon SC, defending, (with Mr Roger Sweetman) that his granddaughter never visited his home with her family. He said he never slept in her home, where she claimed the two rapes happened - when he visited Dublin he slept in his daughter's house. "I was never in my granddaughter's house and no such things as she claims ever happened. I didn't rape her," he told the jury.
Cross-examined by Ms Maureen Clark SC (with John F. Ayl mer BL), prosecuting, he agreed the woman used visit his home as "a small child" and would play with some of his family. Later he fell out with her father and she never visited his home again.
The woman told the jury she was raped when her grandfather stayed overnight in her house.
The woman said she was 13 when a teacher got her to admit her father's sexual abuse of her. She told Mr Sammon, in cross-examination, that she told a social worker and her mother about her grandfather in 1990 when she was 15. Her mother said he was an old man and should be left to live out his life. She contacted the gardai herself seven years later.
Pressed by Mr Sammon, who suggested her claims were untrue, she replied: "I may not be sure of dates but all I know is that man raped me when I was between seven and nine years old."
The trial before Mr Justice Carney is due to end on Monday.