EVIDENCE concluded yesterday in the trial at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court of a Cork man charged with sexually assaulting his former girlfriend's teenage daughter.
The jury of six men and six women heard closing addresses from Mr Patrick J. McCarthy, prosecuting, and Mr Blaise, O'Carroll, defending. Judge Kieran O'Connor will address the jury this morning.
The 36 year old man has pleaded not guilty to 20 charges of indecent assault and sexual assault on the girl on dates between 1989 and 1993.
The court heard the girl, who is now 16, claim that she was sexually assaulted by the man on a daily basis during those years. It was also told that the man was ordered out of the house in November 1993 after the girl's mother caught him with his hand under her daughter's bedclothes.
The accused man has denied, the allegations. He rejected a suggestion during cross examination by Mr McCarthy that the reason he left the house so abruptly in November 1993 was consistent with him having been thrown out for interfering with the girl.
He said he left the house because he was annoyed at catching the girl's mother in a compromising situation with one of his oldest male friends.
The girl's mother told the jury that she and her former lover lived like "brother and sister" without any sexual contact for almost two years before she ordered him out. He denied that claim and said that they had a sexual relationship up to the time he left.
During the trial, the girl walked out of the video link room on two successive days, refusing to answer any further questions. She returned to the court on the third day and completed her evidence directly from the witness box.