Woman tells jury she was raped by her uncle and molested by her mother in Mayo and Kerry

Sonya McLean

A woman has told a jury that she was raped by her uncle just before her sixth birthday while her mother stood in the room and watched.

The now 27-year-old woman told Anne-Marie Lawlor SC, prosecuting, that after the rape her mother lifted her from the bed in her uncle’s bedroom and moved her into another bed in another room.

The woman said she lived with her grandfather, who was a doctor, her grandmother, her aunt, her uncle, and her mother. She said she and her mother shared a bedroom and always shared a bed.

Her mother, her uncle and another man face a total of 21 counts of sexual assault and rape, which allegedly occurred on dates between 2000 and 2014, mainly at a location in Co Mayo.

The three accused all have addresses in Co Mayo. They cannot be named for legal reasons.

The 51 year-old woman has pleaded not guilty to 13 counts of sexual assault, and not guilty to one count of rape. The court heard she is the complainant's mother.

It is alleged that the woman sexually assaulted the girl on nine occasions between 2000 and 2009 at the family home in Co Mayo, on one occasion between 2012 and 2014 and on three occasions during a family holiday in Co Kerry in 2001.

The 45-year-old man has pleaded not guilty to five counts of rape and one of oral rape on dates between 2003 and 2012, all at the same address in Co. Mayo. The court has heard he is the complainant's maternal uncle.

The third man (52) pleaded not guilty to one count of oral rape between 2008 and 2009 at the same address in Co Mayo. The jury heard he was a friend of the woman's then partner.

The woman told Ms Lawlor that her first memory of sexual abuse was when she was three and half years old when her mother “sort of guided” her into performing oral sex on her.

“She was in bed with me. Neither of us had any clothes on us. She was saying something quietly but I don’t know what she was saying. I don’t know how long I did it for,” she told the jury.

She recalled further incidents in which her mother sexually assaulted her by digitally penetrating her and making her perform oral sex on her. She said two of the incidences occurred while they were on a family holiday in Kerry.

She described sleeping in a new sleeping bag her grandfather had got her but her mother opened the sleeping bag, removed her pyjamas and molested her.

The woman also described an incident when she was 11 years old and her mother’s then partner’s friend - the third accused - came into a room while she was playing on a games console.

She described him as giggling. She said he locked the door and beckoned her to come over to him.

She said he told her “your mother knows”.

The woman told Ms Lawlor that she took it that this meant that her mother knew what was happening or what was going to happen. She said the man undid the fly on his jeans and forced her to perform oral sex on him while holding his hand to the back of her head.

The woman told the jury about an incident when her uncle put his penis in her mouth. She said she was seven years old at the time and it felt like she was choking.

She also told the jury of other incidences when her uncle raped her. She said on one of these she had been asleep in her bedroom and her uncle came into the room and started to have sex with her. She was about 11 years old at the time.

The woman told the jury of a period she had once when she was 13 years old. She said she now believes that this particular period was actually a miscarriage.

“I never experienced anything like it since. The bleeding was very, very heavy and there were like clumps. It was extremely painful,” the woman said.

The woman told the jury of a time when she was four years old when she saw her uncle having sex with her mother.

“I don’t think I was meant to see them, I don’t think they knew I was there, after a few moments she told him to stop. I don’t know if I got put out of the room or if I left,” she said.

She said the last time her mother molested her she was 15 years old and her mother was pregnant.

She said that there had been a fight downstairs and her mother came into her room and lay down beside her. She pretended she was asleep. She said her mother started touching her vagina.

“I didn’t move or respond and eventually she stopped – that was the last occasion,” the woman said.

Referring to her life growing up in the house, the woman said “everyone drank heavily”, her grandfather, her grandmother, her aunt and her mother.

She said there was “always violence in the house”.

“Literally physically fighting with each other” she said and recalled one incident when a frosted glass panel in the door of her bedroom was broken into her room during a fight.

“I tried to keep away from it (the fighting),” she said and added she didn’t think anyone was violent towards her. She said she would hide and try to keep away from it.

She recalled though that on occasion her mother would bite her. She said when her mother bit her instead of letting go – she would pull her teeth off rather than letting go.

She said one time they were in the living room and her mother was drunk – “She knocked us both down and I ended up falling on to the ground on my shoulder,” the woman told the jury.

She said her mother drank every evening and would pass out before midnight.

“That went of for years and years. At no point did the drinking ever stop,” the woman said. The woman said she moved out of the family home fully when she was 18 years old.

She said at that point her mother had several children with her partner and she was often left minding these children.

The woman said she didn’t speak to gardaí at that time because she was terrified of gardaí.

She said the last time she saw her mother was when she was 20 years old when she and her mother’s partner visited her where she was living at the time.

The trial continues before Justice Melanie Greally and a jury.

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.