THE LAWYER FOR a former sports coach who is accused of sexually abusing four complainants in the 1970s and 1980s has accused one of the complainants of lying about the man assaulting her. 

The man (70s), who cannot be named due to the nature of the charges, is accused of 78 indecent assaults and one attempted rape in a number of locations within the state.

The four complainants were aged between eight and 15 when the alleged offences occurred.

He has pleaded not guilty to 73 counts of indecently assaulting the four complainants on dates between 1971 and 1981, and one count of attempted rape in 1976.

He has pleaded guilty to five counts of indecently assaulting one of the complainants on a number of dates between May and September 1976.

It is the state’s case that the abuse took the form of kissing, inappropriate touching, digital penetration, forced oral sex and, in relation to one complainant, attempted rape.

The third complainant in the trial began her evidence on Thursday. She told the jury that the accused indecently assaulted her on a number of occasions in his car after he would pick her up on her way home from sports. She also alleged that he attempted to rape her during a summer camp in 1975 when she was 12.

The accused has pleaded not guilty to 41 counts of indecently assaulting this complainant and one count of attempted rape on dates between 1971 and 1975.

At the Central Criminal Court this morning, she told James Dwyer BL, for the prosecution, that she began wearing baggier clothes like jeans and jumpers after the alleged abuse began.

“I didn’t wear skirts or dresses that much at all,” she said. “It protected my private parts.

“As I got older and the abuse was continuing, I figured out that I could not be assaulted the way I had been by keeping jeans on.”

She said she stopped taking part in the sport after the accused allegedly attempted to rape her. Asked why, she said: “Because I didn’t want to have to be put in a situation again with him.”

During cross-examination, Patrick Gageby SC, for the accused, asked the complainant to point out on a map the places where she told the jury that the alleged abuse took place in the accused’s car.

He went over the statement she gave to gardaí about the alleged attempted rape. The complainant alleged to the jury on Thursday that after he attempted to rape her, the accused made her masturbate him and then he ejaculated on her before he left and she took a shower.

Gageby put it to her that in her statement to gardaí, she never said the accused ejaculated after she masturbated him. 

“If I had a tape recorder or a video recorder, I could tell you exactly in every order of what happened, but I don’t, so it does come back in bits and pieces,” she said.

What I do recall and what I stated to the jury yesterday is what occurred.

Gageby suggested to the complainant that she was never given a lift by the accused at all. “I imagine you disagree?” he said.

“Wholeheartedly,” the complainant responded.

He also suggested to her that there was “no indecency or molestation” on the part of the accused, and that there “most definitely was not any attempt to rape you or assault you” at the summer camp in 1975.

“You’re trying to say that I’m lying. Is that what you’re saying?” the complainant asked.

“Yes,” Gageby responded.

“Well you’re wrong,” she said. 

He put it to her that throughout that time, she continued to accept lifts. “Yes. Naive and stupid as it was,” she said.

Gageby said: “But sufficiently, as it were, clued in to avoid wearing skirts?”.

“I didn’t want his finger up my vagina,” the complainant said.

After a break, prosecution counsel James Dwyer asked the complainant during re-examination about her state of mind when she got lifts from the accused.

“I would say that I was almost on automatic. That it was routine. It had become normalised,” she said. 

Asked how old she was at the time, she said: “I was 12 when it stopped.”

The sister of the third complainant also gave evidence today. She told the court that she attended the summer camp in 1975 with her sister, that there were a number of sports at the camp and that they were in different groups.

On the day of the alleged attempted rape, she said she recalled looking for her sister during the lunch break and that she couldn’t find her anywhere. She said when the complainant came into the room where the rest of the summer camp participants were, she was in “a state of absolute panic or hysteria”.

“She was grabbing at me and making noises, not saying anything,” she said, describing it as “completely untoward”. She said her sister was then removed from the room and that she didn’t see her until they finished for the day later that afternoon.

She told the court that after that day, her sister was “not the same person”.

She was very angry, very distrustful, very aggressive. Just a completely different person, and we didn’t know why.

The trial also heard from the fourth and final complainant in the case. The accused has pleaded not guilty to one count of indecently assaulting her on a date between 1980 and 1981.

She told the court that her family was very into sports and that it was “more or less mandatory” for her and her siblings to take part.

She said the accused would drive her and her brother to sports, but that once, he picked her up by herself when she was around 13. She said she always sat in the back of his car, but this time he opened the passenger door for her to get in the front, which she said she did.

She recalled taking her bag off, putting it on the floor of the car and putting her seatbelt on. “He wasn’t moving off. He was just staring at me.” 

She told the court that he then leaned in and put his hand on her knee, then continued to lean in further while his hand moved further up her leg until it reached her groin. She said it happened very slowly and that she felt “awkward” and “really embarrassed”.

She alleged she told him to take his hands off of her, or she would tell her father. After this, he “kind of sneered” and removed his hand. She said he made a negative comment about her looks before driving off. 

Her brother later told the court that he could not remember if any of his siblings were ever with him when he received a lift from the accused. 

During cross-examination, Patrick Gageby asked the fourth complainant whether she did tell her father what the accused had allegedly done. She said she didn’t.

Asked how long the alleged incident lasted, she said she froze. “Possibly, it was only seconds. It seemed like it was happening very slowly,” she said, describing it as “surreal” and that she thought at the time “is this really happening?”.

She said she “would’ve been sexually very unaware” at that point in time.

Gageby put it to her that the accused “is very clear that he did nothing of the sort”.

“Is that a question?” the complainant asked. When Gageby responded with yes, she said: “He absolutely did.”

The man has pleaded not guilty to 29 counts of indecent assault in relation to the first complainant on dates between 1975 and 1977. The guilty pleas he entered are in relation to her.

In relation to the second complainant, the man has denied two counts of indecently assaulting this woman on dates between 1975 and 1977.

The trial continues before Mr Justice Mícheál O’Higgins and a jury of six men and six women on Monday.