A 51-year-old man has denied his daughter's allegation in the Central Criminal Court that he raped and sexually assaulted her almost on a daily basis over a two-year period.
"I didn't do it. I am not guilty. I didn't commit these offences," he told the jury. Giving evidence on the fourth day of his trial, the accused man said in reply to his counsel, Mr Blaise O'Carroll SC, that he had a particularly good relationship with his daughter, and could not explain why she would make the allegations.
The accused man's daughter, who is now 21, told the jury on the first day of the trial that he had had sexual intercourse with her almost on a daily basis between 1985 and 1987 after she came home from school. Her father has pleaded not guilty to eight charges of rape, unlawful carnal knowledge, attempted unlawful carnal knowledge and indecent assaults on dates between September 1st, 1985, and September 21st, 1987, on a west Dublin estate.
The defendant told the jury he did not fight the extradition proceedings when arrested last year on foot of warrants in respect of the eight charges and came home to defend himself. He denied her evidence that his then partner - the girl's mother - would return home from work at 5 p.m. or 5.30 p.m. and said she was usually home at 4 p.m.
Cross-examined by prosecuting counsel, Mr Patrick Gageby SC, he agreed he told the English police who interviewed him that she came home at 5 p.m. or 5.30 p.m. but said that was what came into his mind at the time because she worked in a factory. He had come home in spring 1990 from England for the girl's confirmation. He had "no idea" what her mother meant when she told him she knew "what you have been doing to the children". He did ask what she meant when she said he could not see the children but got no reply because her new partner took her back into the house.
Pressed by Mr Gageby, he said it never crossed his mind to write to the social services to try to find out what was going on. He agreed he had a large, extended family in Dublin but did not ask them to find out about it because, he claimed, his partner had ostracised them and had then moved house within a short time. He had no idea how his daughter could tell in her statement about seeing a video, when 12 years old, with two naked men and a naked woman performing various sexual acts. He agreed he told the English police who interviewed him he "still looked at" pornographic videos but denied he had ever done that in front of the girl. The hearing continues before Mr Justice O'Sullivan.