This article is from page 49 of the 2007-11-06 edition of The Clare People. OCR mistakes are to be expected so download the original SWF or the rendered page 49 JPG
THE concluding stages have been reached at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court in the trial of a Clare man for allegedly sexually abusing two of his daughters.
The 36-year-old accused has plead- ed not guilty to 11 counts of sexual
assault on two of his daughters on dates between September 2001 and December 2004 in a County Tipper- ary town. It 1s day-13 of the trial. Prosecuting counsel, Ms Una Ni Raifeartaigh BL, said in her closing address that the case in relation to one of the girls would have collapsed in view of her not giving direct evi-
dence of being abused.
Ms Ni Raifeartaigh, however, said the prosecution invited the five wom- en and seven men the jury to find the accused guilty of these charges aris- ing out of what the girl told a child psychiatrist in several interviews which were videotaped and shown in court.
She noted that in these interviews the child had clearly indicated under no pressure at all that she had been interfered with on many occasions Wa iomrlenoe
This was the first instance since its enactment that section 16 of the Criminal Justice Act 2006 was used to admit a video recording of such
an interview as direct evidence in a CHueneveerNmeurue
Garda Lorraine Fahy gave evidence of observing all the interviews seen by the jury and that what was shown in court was an accurate record of what happened at them.
The trial continues before Judge Desmond Hogan.