A 60-year-old Co Kilkenny man denied in evidence at the Central Criminal Court that he raped his then nine-year-old niece in 1990 and that he sexually assaulted her over three years.
He told defence counsel, Mr John O'Kelly SC, he did not know why she made the allegations.
"I can't put a bearing on it at all," he said.
The married man said that when he first heard about the allegations he did not think they would go any further than that.
He believed they were "just something that came into her mind". The now 18-year-old destroyed a secret tape recording made by her father of her allegations.
The jury was told by the girl's mother, in reply to Mr O'Kelly (with Mr Padraig Dwyer), that her husband played the tape in a pub. Counsel had suggested he played it in several pubs.
The girl's mother said her daughter was unaware her husband had the tape recorder in his pocket when he asked her to outline her allegations against her uncle.
The accused has pleaded not guilty to one charge of raping the girl on a date unknown between October 27th and November 2nd, 1990, in Co Kilkenny. He also pleads not guilty to four charges of indecently assaulting and 10 charges of sexually assaulting her on dates from July 1st, 1990, to June 10th, 1993.
Garda William Maher told Mr Michael Durack SC, prosecuting (with Ms Una Ni Raifeartaigh), the accused struck him as "a cool, calm individual" when he told him of his niece's allegations.
He was not upset or shocked when arrested in 1996 and totally denied her claims.
The girl denied suggestions by Mr O'Kelly at the conclusion of her cross-examination that she had made up the allegations and had been found out through what he claimed were "inconsistencies" in her evidence.
"I didn't make it up. It is all true. How would you know? You were not there at the time," she said from the witness box.