Trial hears accused forced girl to dress like her mother

A trial in Galway heard evidence this week that a family friend forced a seven-year-old girl to wear her mother’s best dress and make-up, before forcing her to lie across a pool table in provocative poses while he took sexually explicit photographs on his mobile phone.

The now 15-year-old girl told the jury at Galway Circuit Criminal Court that she was in second or third class when she first met the man.

He was a friend of her mother’s and he often called to her family home and would push his thumb into her mouth at every opportunity.

The first time he did this, she said she felt sick and bit it.

The now 55-year-old man, who cannot be identified for legal reasons, has denied 19 charges involving the sexual exploitation and sexual assault of the girl when she was aged between seven and ten years of age.

He also denies a separate charge of sexually assaulting the girl’s older sister, on dates between October 6, 2006 and November 25, 2007.

The first five charges relate to the sexual exploitation of the younger girl by coercing her into engaging in the production of child pornography on dates between October 6, 2006 and June 30, 2009.

The man also denies four further charges of the sexual exploitation of the girl by getting her to engage in a sexual act on dates between November 26, 2007 and June 6, 2008.

He further denies ten charges of sexually assaulting the child on dates between November 26, 2007 and June 30, 2009.

The man’s trial is being held ‘in camera’ at Galway Circuit Criminal Court this week, as several HSE care workers and Gardai involved in the investigation have yet to give their evidence.

For more on the trial, see this week’s Galway City Tribune