Man on trial for indecent assault of nephew at Longford address

A man has gone on trial accused of indecently assaulting his nephew on eight separate occasions during the late 1980s.

The 47-year-old stands accused of the charges which occurred at St Michael's Road, Longford between August 1 1987 and July 31 1989 inclusive.

One of the charges involved allegations the accused man attempted to measure the size of his penis with a nail.

The father of two has pleaded not guilty to all of the charges before Judge Keenan Johnston at Longford Circuit Court.

The alleged victim, now aged 38 but at the times of the charges before the court allegedly occurred between his seventh and ninth birthdays, claimed all of the incidents took place inside the confines of his grandparents' house.

"I would go in and he (defendant) would be on the bed," he said.

"He put his hand down my trousers and started feeling the top of my private parts.

"I knew it didn't feel right."

The alleged victim said on each occasion, the abuse would last for no more than four to five minutes while no one else was in the house.

At a later stage, he said his aunt asked him to go down to his grandparents' house to obtain a nail for a picture she wanted to put up.

He said after meeting his uncle and finding him lying on the bed, he was allegedly told: "Measure this to the size of your mickey."

The alleged victim, who has battled substance and drug addiction in recent years, claimed he later stayed with his uncle at a bedsit he was occupying in Dalston, North London several years later.

However, he claimed no abuse took place either then or in the intervening years that followed.

He conceded to suffering a short term memory loss around a year ago but insisted his facilities were now back in full working order.

Counsel for the defence Des Dockery SC said given the 16 year gap between when the last alleged incident happened and when he made a statement to gardai in September 2014, the charges his client was being accused of simply did not occur.

In his memorandum of interview with gardai in April 2016, the accused man admitted to being openly gay and having "gay experiences" but flatly rejected the charges which had been levelled against him.

"No, I definitely did not," he told Detective Garda Damien McGovern.

"Not in one million years."

The defendant said he believed the charges were little more than "a plot" involving his nephew and the accused man's youngest brother.

He claimed his nephew had been a witness to an assault allegedly carried out by the accused man's brother on another man and effectively "put up" his nephew to make the allegations against him in a bid to expose the victim as a liar.

The court was later told however that the alleged assault took place on October 12 2014, more than a month after the alleged victim first made a statement of complaint to gardai.

It was also revealed the complainant had been a witnesss to an incident of suspected criminal damage at a house which once again involved the same man and brother of the defendant.

That led Mr Dockery to imply there had been an “unhappy history” to the case with tensions rife between his client's family and the defendant's stepfather at the time.

“One of the reasons you told nobody was because you were afraid your stepfather would be accused of putting you up to it,” Mr Dockery told the alleged victim.

Quizzed further as to how his recollection of events was simply unreliable given the 27 year gap between his statement to gardaí and when the alleged first incident of abuse occurred, the victim said: “ remember his hand went dow my trousers and him fondling me several times.

“I remember it was him, I remember him putting his hand down my trousers and him fondling me.

“That's something you don't forget.”

Details were also read into court of the man's memorandum of interview concerning the alleged claims.

Asked by Garda McGovern over allegations the alleged abuse involved the attempted use of a nail, the man replied: “No, (he has) very good memory for a seven-year-old,”.

“Nothing ever happened. I can tell you (alleged victim's name) was never in my company on his own.”

Pressed again as to why his nephew would make such claims against him, the man said he was addicted to drugs and “easily led” by others.

“No, I told you already,” he said in his interview with Det Garda McGovern.

“I am gay, not a paedo, this is a plot.”