A 40-year-old woman told a jury at the Central Criminal Court in Dublin she was raped and sexually abused by a relative in the late 1960s.
The 58-year-old accused man, a step-uncle of the woman, has pleaded not guilty to four charges of buggery and 15 charges of raping the alleged victim in the years 1967-1970. However, he has pleaded guilty to 19 charges of indecent assault on the same victim in the same years.
The woman told Mr Gerard Clarke SC, prosecuting, that the offences began when she was about 10 1/2 years old and continued until she was about 13 before she went to secondary school.
She told the jury of five women and seven men the abuse happened in the man's bedroom in a north Dublin suburb.
The woman told Mr Barry White SC, defending, that she was 21 when she first complained to her mother that the accused had sexually abused her.
She told Mr White that what she meant by sexual abuse was rape and buggery but her mother had not asked her that and she had not told her the details because she was leaving home then.
The jury also heard that a formal complaint was made to the Garda around January 1997 and the accused had made three statements when he was interviewed in April 1997.
A file was then sent to the Director of Public Prosecutions and the man was arrested when he met gardai by appointment on July 24th, 1998. The man had at all times denied the allegations of rape and buggery.
Mr White made legal submissions in the absence of the jury and Mr Justice Paul Carney said he would rule on the matter after reading the transcript of the evidence overnight.
The trial continues.