A Foreign national charged with raping his wife said his life was "like hell" because she verbally and physically abused him over a period of 10 years.
He told Mr Philip Sheahan, defending, he had suffered a continuous cycle of abuse from his wife. He didn't tell anyone about the verbal abuse he suffered because of the shame.
"I didn't come to this country to fight anyone, I got abused and abused and abused," he told the jury on the fifth day of his trial in the Central Criminal Court.
"No matter what I did or said, it was never enough for her," he said. Asked why he didn't leave the marriage, he replied: "I built our house. I have children. Where would I go?" The 41-year-old man denies three charges of rape, attempted anal rape and aggravated sexual assault on his wife on the night of July 18th-19th, 1998, at their home.
He denied telling gardai the contents of the statement read to the jury. He claimed that what he actually told them was not written down. A sergeant "abused" him in the station, he said. The gardai looked at him as if he was "an animal" and he felt "so small". He said that on the night of the alleged rape he was so fed up with the abuse he had suffered for so many years that he told his wife he was going to teach her a lesson and "frighten" her.
He said his wife asked him to think about their children and he relented. He told his counsel he had been attending a society for male victims of abuse. The accused said that on one occasion in 1990 his wife left their children freezing in the house without heating.
He told Mr Sheahan his wife attacked him on another occasion as he slept in bed. He claimed the "worst assault" occurred in the spring or summer of 1995 when his wife tried to stab him.
The jury heard from a forensic scientist that semen was not found on swabs taken from the alleged victim.
The trial continues before Mr Justice Carney.