A Catholic priest in his 30s has pleaded not guilty to four charges relating to alleged sexual abuse of three of his cousins. The cousins alleged the abuse took place in 1985 and 1988, before the accused entered a seminary.
The priest, from the south-east and who cannot be named for legal reasons, was ordained in the early 1990s. Shortly after his ordination, his cousins, a brother and sister and another teenager, made their complaints against him.
They allege that when they were aged four, seven and eight, he sexually assaulted them in his home and in a public house owned by his uncle in Cork city when he was aged between 17 and 20.
Giving evidence in the Cork Circuit Criminal Court yesterday, his first cousin said her family was visiting the accused's house and they were playing in the bedroom. The accused man told her brother to switch off the light and he put her lying on the bed. He took down her underwear.
She said she was having problems in school when she was 15 and was crying in the bathroom. A teacher spoke to her and she told her about the incident.
Her brother, now aged 21, said the accused man ran away from home and came to stay for about a week in the public house where they lived in Cork. "One night when I went to bed he came into the bedroom and he kissed me. I turned around and pretended to be asleep." He also alleged the accused man tried to have anal sex with him on another occasion when he was eight.
A second cousin claimed the accused man had urinated over her when he was babysitting her.
The trial continues.