A 74-year-old Kildare man pleaded not guilty in the Central Criminal Court yesterday to sexually assaulting his granddaughter, then aged 13, in his house on an unknown date in September 1996.
The girl told Ms Maureen Clark SC, prosecuting, she was on a message for a neighbour when she saw her eight-yearold sister at her grandfather's house. She ran to the house to bring her sister home, but the younger girl refused to leave. "Eventually I went in for my sister's safety", she said.
The accused asked her to clean his house and while she was making his bed he tried to put his hands between her legs and open her zip. She pushed him away. He got her to do some ironing and while she was doing that he tried to kiss her on the neck.
The accused man told his counsel, Mr Anthony Sammon SC, he had a number of grandchildren and he had not recognised the girl when she called to his house. She said she wanted to do some cleaning for him but he told her to go home.
A short time later he found her in the kitchen looking at some of his late wife's trinkets which were in a box. He let her have a piece of jewellery and sent her home. The trial before Mr Justice Carney and a jury continues.