A CO ANTRIM father of four who allegedly confessed to his wife and family minister that he sexually abused his only daughter, yesterday went on trial at Belfast Crown Court accused of raping and indecently assaulting her.
The 59 year old man, who cannot be named to protect hiss daughter's identity, denies sexually abusing her from the age of nine until she left home to get married at 16 in 1982. His daughter, now a 31 year old mother of three, claimed that her father raped and sexually abused her two or three times a week. She went to police only in August last year when she learned he had also allegedly abused her elder brother.
The court heard that the man confessed to his wife and son in law during a family row a week after his daughter's wedding and later, during talks with the family minister, had "acknowledged" he had done wrong. The man's daughter claimed that the abuse began at the age of nine when he would come into her bedroom and "touch" her, but that this soon led to full sexual intercourse which "happened about two or three times a week".
She said the abuse continued until she was 16 and that he also kept her from school in the mornings so that he could rape her. When she objected, her father allegedly "threatened me, or hit me and on one occasion he choked me", said the woman.
She claimed that the only occasion she could put a date on an assault was the night her grandmother died. Her mother, aunt and uncle, she said, had gone to see her grandmother in hospital and her father told her since they would be away all night, she was to sleep with him. But, she added, his plan was thwarted when someone telephoned to say her cousins were to spend the night with them, yet by this time he had already allegedly raped her.
Under cross examination she rejected defence claims that her allegations were a "load of lies" and that her father had "never led "a finger" on her. However, she admitted that despite her claims she had allowed her father to babysit her two young daughters and son and had even gone on family holidays with him.
But she claimed she thought her father was only interested in her and as such her children were safe.
She said she eventually went to the police after her two younger brothers found out about the abuse and she learned that her elder brother had also allegedly been abused by her father.
The woman's mother wept as she told the court of the night her husband allegedly confessed that he had "made love" to their daughter during a family row. "I believed him when he said that. I was devastated."
Under cross examination she rejected suggestions that her evidence was a "tissue of lies".
The trial is expected to end tomorrow.