Donegal man recalls multiple alleged childhood sexual assaults Circuit Court trial

A Donegal man has recalled how he was sexually assaulted multiple times by a neighbour when he was just a young boy.

The man gave details of the harrowing incidents at a trial of the accused man at Letterkenny Circuit Court.

The defendant, who is in his 60s, faces a total of 60 charges and there are nine complainants in the case.

The accused cannot be named for legal reasons due to the nature of the alleged offending and to protect the anonymity of the complainants. 

The raft of offences include alleged incidents of indecent assault, sexual assault and attempted indecent assault against nine complainants and span a timeframe from 1978 to 1998. 

There are 23 alleged offences in respect of one complainant and 11 of the charges are in relation to another complainant. 

A  man, the sixth complainant to give evidence in the trial, told how he was helping the accused man with a job in a shed and recalled how the defendant would lift him up and feel his private parts.

The witness also told the jury that he sometimes travelled in a vehicle with the man, who would constantly try to reach across feel his private parts on the journey.

"I would have to jam myself up against the passenger door so he could not reach me," he said.

When asked by state prosecutor Ms Fiona Crawford, BL, if this happened when the vehicle was stopped or moving, the man replied that it happened both when it was moving and stopped.

He also added that when they stopped for tea, the man would also try to touch his private parts.

The witness broke down in tears when he recalled one morning he was accosted by the accused man, who said they would have tea in his home before setting off.

The man recalled the accused closing the door of a room before putting his arm around him.

He then said how the accused "tucked his ankles around my ankle" and pinned him to the couch before sexually assaulting him by placing his hand down his underpants and rubbing his penis.

The man wept as he recounted the ordeal, saying that the accused man simply got up, rubbed his hands and that he just left him sitting there.

Ms Crawford, instructed by State Solicitor for Donegal, Mr Kieran Dillon, is leading the prosecution while the accused man is represented by Mr Colm Smyth SC, with Mr Ciaran O’Rourke BL, instructed by solicitor Mr Frank Dorrian.

Earlier in the trial, Mr Smyth said his client is “dumbfounded” by the suggestion. He said the accused replied when the allegations were put to him: “I never touched any of them.” 

The trial continues before Judge John Aylmer and a jury of six men and six women.