A Dublin man went on trial yesterday charged with 115 offences relating to the alleged sex abuse of his two foster sons. The 50-year-old married man, who cannot be named for legal reasons, pleaded not guilty at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court, and a jury was sworn in to try the case.
The defendant denied charges of buggery, gross indecency, and indecent assault of the two brothers during the 1980s.
The alleged victims are now in their early 20s.
The eldest brother claimed the abuse started when he began accompanying his foster father to weddings. The defendant used to make videos of weddings and other functions for a living. These wedding jobs happened frequently.
The witness told Mr Denis Vaughan Buckley SC (with Mr Bruce Antoniotti SC), prosecuting, that the defendant would park in a church car-park and abuse him before going into the church.
On other occasions when his foster mother was away, the defendant used to make videos of him and his brother on treasure hunts or on trips to various locations. After watching the videos in their home, the defendant would say: "Who is first for the treatment."
The alleged victim went on to describe to the court how his foster father would tie and blindfold both him and his brother and sexually abuse them.
The defendant would videotape the abuse and said he would have to wipe the videos in case his wife saw them, he said.
He identified video footage to the court showing him and his brother on a treasure hunt and said abuse took place afterwards.
He also claimed the accused's wife once arrived home to find all three naked and she asked what was going on. The accused said they were only playing.
The witness said he could not remember his natural father. He looked up to the accused and called him "father". He came to expect the abuse, he said.
He recalled one night when all the rest of the family except the defendant were away from home.
Feeling insecure, he climbed into the accused's bed and was raped. He was about 16 at the time.
In that year, the accused told him he was "too old and rough" and the abuse ceased, the alleged victim said.
Under cross-examination he denied a suggestion made by Mr Brendan Grogan SC (with Mr Anthony Hunt), defending, that the abuse had not taken place.
The witness accepted that from video footage both he and his brother appeared to be happy and well-adjusted boys. But he said that while people thought they were happy, this was not the case.
The man also agreed his schooling did not appear to have been affected. Mr Grogan said the accused's wife would tell the court that she never found her husband naked with her foster sons.
She would also say, he said, that she never witnessed any suspicious behaviour between her husband and the alleged victims. The witness said that this was not true.