Jury in child cruelty and sexual abuse case shown specialist interview with alleged victim

Eimear Dodd

The jury in the trial of a man facing child cruelty and sexual abuse charges has been shown an interview conducted by specialist gardaí with one of the alleged victims when she was very young.

The 29-year-old man, who cannot be named to protect the identity of the now seven-year-old girl and eight-year-old boy, pleaded not guilty at the Central Criminal Court to ten charges involving sexual assault, reckless endangerment and child cruelty on dates between March 2018 and April 2018. The children were just under two and three years old at the time.

The jury was on Thursday shown footage of the girl's interview with specialist, gardaí in 2020, shortly after her fourth birthday.

During the interview, the girl told gardaí that the accused man “bit” her on her “private” area and that he also “hit” her with “a stick”.

She said it was “really sore”, and she was “crying”. She said she was at the man's home, and her mother was also present.

When asked by gardaí how old she was at the time, the girl said she didn't know, and she was “only a baby”. A specalist garda interviewer also confirmed that the girl has two siblings, one of whom is the second complainant in this case.

The accused man has pleaded not guilty to sexually assaulting the infant girl by penetrating her vagina with an object and to intentionally or recklessly endangering her by failing to seek medical help for injuries to her genital area and, on another occasion by failing to seek medical help for an injury to her wrist.

The man also pleaded not guilty to wilfully assaulting or ill-treating the infant boy by causing bruising to his penis, body and face and to wilfully assaulting or ill-treating both children at a Dublin shopping centre.

The man pleaded not guilty to wilfully, ill-treating, neglecting, abandoning or exposing the children by leaving them alone together outside the door of an apartment.

Finally, the man pleaded not guilty to wilfully assaulting or ill-treating the girl by causing bruising to her face and body and additionally to sexually assaulting the same child by biting her on her genital area.

The trial continues before Mr Justice David Keane.

If you have been affected by any of the issues raised in this article, you can call the national 24-hour Rape Crisis Helpline at 1800-77 8888, access text service and webchat options at drcc.ie/services/helpline/, or visit Rape Crisis Help.