A WOMAN HAS told the Central Criminal Court that she felt “angry and confused and disgusting” after a former sports coach allegedly attempted to rape her.
The man (70s), who cannot be named due to the nature of the charges, is accused of 78 indecent assaults and one attempted rape in a number of locations within the state in the 1970s and 1980s.
The four complainants were aged between eight and 15 when the alleged offences occurred.
He has pleaded not guilty to 73 counts of indecently assaulting the four complainants on dates between 1971 and 1981, and one count of attempted rape in 1976.
He has pleaded guilty to five counts of indecently assaulting one of the complainants on a number of dates between May and September 1976.
It is the state’s case that the abuse took the form of kissing, inappropriate touching, digital penetration, forced oral sex and, in relation to one complainant, attempted rape.
The third complainant in the trial began her evidence at the Central Criminal Court this afternoon.
The accused has pleaded not guilty to 41 counts of indecently assaulting this complainant and one count of attempted rape on dates between 1971 and 1975.
The third complainant told James Dwyer BL, for the prosecution, that she first encountered the accused when she was around eight or nine years old. She said he was her sports coach and at this point, she felt “very positive” about him.
“It’s very easy to turn around now and say I was lacking a father figure and that I did not have a male role model.”
‘I didn’t know how to react’
She said he “started paying more attention to me” and “taking an interest in me”, and would offer her a lift home after sports. She said there would sometimes be other people in the car, but other times she was alone with the accused, and that he would not drop her to the front door, but a short distance away from her home.
She told the court that the first time he allegedly assaulted her, she was sitting in the front seat of his car. She said that after he pulled the car in, he leaned over and kissed her, putting his tongue in her mouth. She said she remembered him asking if she had ever been kissed and that he could show her how to do it afterwards.
“I didn’t know how to react,” she said.
She said this would happen “sometimes once or twice a month” for around a year. She said the accused eventually began putting her hand “on his crotch” and touching her inappropriately over her clothing, and eventually with his hands under her clothing.
She detailed how he escalated the abuse to include penetration with his finger, exposing himself and pulling her head down to his penis.
Asked about his demeanour after the alleged incidents, she said: “Nonchalant. No difference whatsoever.”
She said she had “zero” knowledge about the facts of life at that point and that the alleged incidents made her feel “weird”.
“It didn’t hurt. I wasn’t crying out. I had never done anything like that before. It was an unknown.”
She gave evidence that the alleged abuse continued in the accused’s car, and also in a sports complex.
‘I was 12 years of age’
She told the court that she enrolled in a summer camp in 1975 where the accused had a coaching role.
She alleged that during this summer camp, the accused took her into a different room and told her to take off her clothes. She alleged that he then attempted to rape her.
“He straddled me and he attempted to put his penis inside me. I was 12 years of age,” she said. “I told him it hurt.”
She then told the court that he had her masturbate him and that he ejaculated on her. “And then he left, and I immediately went into the shower and I showered.”
She said after the alleged incident, he “pulled his trousers back up and left”. She said she was “angry and confused and felt disgusting”.
She did not return to the summer camp after the alleged incident.
Her evidence to the trial is expected to continue on Friday.
Earlier evidence
This morning, the court heard from the younger sister of the first two complainants in the case.
The man has pleaded not guilty to 29 counts of indecent assault in relation to the first complainant on dates between 1975 and 1977. The guilty pleas he entered are in relation to her.
In relation to the second complainant, the man has denied two counts of indecently assaulting this woman on dates between 1975 and 1977.
The woman told the court that she took part in the same sport as her siblings when she was aged between six and 11.
She told Jane Horgan Jones BL, for the prosecution, that she stopped taking part in the sport when she was aged around 11, adding it was something “I didn’t question as we didn’t in our family, but I never understood it”.
She said she could remember the accused visiting the family home more than once, but could not estimate how many times exactly.
During cross-examination, Patrick Gageby SC, for the accused, suggested to the woman that the accused “didn’t have any particular business in your house”.
“He didn’t come on business,” she replied.
A man who worked in a sports complex in the 1970s told the court that the accused worked there. He told the court that he knew the accused as a sports coach, and knew that he trained the first two complainants.
The court also heard from the current manager of the sports complex. She gave evidence about the layout of the building, including renovation work that has been done since the 1970s.
The accused has pleaded not guilty to one count of indecently assaulting a fourth complainant on a date between 1980 and 1981.
The trial continues before Mr Justice Mícheál O’Higgins and a jury of six men and six women on Friday.