A 44-year-old man accused of sexually abusing his sister more than 20 years ago went on trial in Belfast yesterday accused of indecent assault.
The man, who cannot be named to protect his 34-year-old sister's identity, denies eight charges of indecent assault allegedly committed between May 1972 and May 1980.
The woman broke down and wept as she told Belfast Crown Court how her brother first abused her at the age of seven and continued until she was in grammar school at about 13 or 14 and how he forced her to perform oral sex on him.
She said the abuse took place in their former Newtownabbey home. She claimed that on one occasion her brother appeared outside his bedroom wearing a pair of her pants and, although she struggled with him and managed to escape, she could not remember if he "touched" her. The woman claimed he first abused her while pretending to help her lace up her first pair of roller skates. She said she froze and "time-wise it seemed to last for ever, but it was probably only three or four minutes".
She said her legs "felt like pure jelly" and afterwards she tried to avoid him by locking herself in a downstairs toilet or hiding in the kitchen larder.
The woman also claimed that after sexually abusing her in their brother's room, her brother later warned her not to say anything or "he would go to jail and I would have to go to a home for bad girls".
She then wept as she recounted when he first forced her to perform oral sex on him. She claimed he "scooped" her up and took her to the bathroom where he sexually abused her. The woman claimed this type of abuse happened about "three or four, six times maybe", but on one occasion she managed to escape because their mother called for her from downstairs.
Under cross-examination from Mr John McCrudden QC, defending, the woman denied that she had made up the sex abuse and that on one occasion had "taken an innocent incident and superimposed a vile incident on it", while on others she had "fabricated and fantasised" her allegations. The trial continues today.