Girl sexually assaulted after petting dogs, court hears
A 12-year-old girl who went to rub two dogs at the back of a house was sexually assaulted by the owner, it was alleged in a trial by judge and jury yesterday.
A jury was sworn in to hear the case before Judge Seán Ó Donnabháin at Cork Circuit Criminal Court where a middle-aged man pleaded not guilty to a count of sexual assault.
Sinead Behan, prosecuting, outlined the allegations in the case at the outset of the trial.
“She was rubbing his dogs,” said Ms Behan. “He was putting coal in a bucket. He sat her down and put her on his lap.
“It is alleged he kissed her stomach, put his hand down her pants, and touched her vagina and then he put his finger in his mouth.
“She said that he said to her if she left him do that more often, he would give her money. She was 12 at the time.”
Specialist garda interviewers asked the child about what allegedly happened and this evidence was presented through pre-recorded evidence on video.
After describing the alleged incident, she said the accused said to her “if I leave him do it more often he would give me money”.
Asked how she felt she said: “I was just confused. I did not know what was happening. When he was doing it, I was just confused.
“I ran out and played with my friends for a while.”
She then told a woman she knew and later told her mother.
John Devlin, defending, said in cross-examination of the complainant that the defendant denied the allegations and he said the girl approached him one day to say her bellybutton was bleeding after a piercing and that he put Savlon antiseptic cream on it. She said she could not remember him putting ointment on her.
The trial continues today.
