The jury in the trial of a man accused of sexually assaulting a young girl his wife had been minding in their family home has viewed an interview of the child by specialist gardai.<\/p>\n
The 59-year-old man has pleaded not guilty at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court to two charges of sexually assaulting the then four-year-old child on dates between July 27, 2016 and July 11, 2017.<\/p>\n
The child’s mother and the accused’s family had been very friendly for a number of years and her daughter had been minded by both the man’s daughter and wife from the time the child was one year old.<\/p>\n
On the third day of the trial today, the jury viewed a recording of an interview of the child by a specialist garda member on July 23, 2017.<\/p>\n
During the interview, the child said the accused put his hand under her shorts in the living room of the house where he lived. She said he rubbed her \u201cbum\u201d and this made her feel bad and it hurt her.<\/p>\n
The court heard that the child later indicated to her mother that when she said her \u201cbum\u201d she meant her vagina.<\/p>\n
In her video evidence she said that the accused licked her \u201cbum\u201d a number of times. She said it made her hurt at night and that she tried to go asleep but it still hurt.<\/p>\n
The child said she called her mother and she said the child needed to go to the doctor. She said she went to the doctor a long time after the accused allegedly rubbed and licked her.<\/p>\n
John Fitzgerald SC, defending, said to the child that the man says she was making a mistake when she said these things. The child said that she was not making a mistake.<\/p>\n
Mr Fitzgerald said his client says this did not happen. The child replied that it did happen.<\/p>\n
The child’s mother told Pauline Walley SC, prosecuting, that when she was going to bed in the early hours of July 12, 2017, she heard her daughter whimpering. She said she called her daughter into bed with her and the child said her \u201cbum\u201d was sore.<\/p>\n
The child’s mother said that the child indicated that when she said her \u201cbum\u201d she meant her vagina and told her that the accused man always touched it and he had also licked it.<\/p>\n
She said she brought her daughter to the hospital and that later in the day they went to a garda station.<\/p>\n
The child’s mother agreed with defence counsel that there was a distance between her and the accused’s family since those events. She agreed that she initially told her daughter that if she was telling her lies then the policeman would take her away from her.<\/p>\n
The trial continues before Judge Elma Sheahan and a jury.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The jury in the trial of a man accused of sexually assaulting a young girl his wife had been minding in their family home has viewed an interview of the child by specialist gardai.<\/p>\n
The 59-year-old man has pleaded not guilty at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court to two charges of sexually assaulting the then four-year-old child on dates between July 27, <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":14,"featured_media":23634,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n