Former sports coach trial: victim 'became different person' after 1975 attack

A sister testified at the Central Criminal Court that her sibling changed completely after an alleged attempted rape in August 1975. The accused, 77, faces 74 counts of sexual abuse.

Sister describes dramatic change in alleged victim the day after attack

A woman became "a completely different person" in the immediate aftermath of an alleged attempted rape by her sports coach in August 1975, her sister told the Central Criminal Court on Friday, as reported by the Irish Times.

The sister described searching a sports camp at lunchtime for the complainant, who could not be found. "She ran over to me and was grabbing at me," she told the court, adding that her sibling was "in a state of absolute panic and hysteria." From that day forward, she said, her sister was "very angry, very distrustful, very aggressive" — "just a completely different person, and we didn't know why."

The accused, a now 77-year-old former sports coach who cannot be named for legal reasons, has pleaded not guilty to 74 counts of sexually abusing four girls during the 1970s and 1980s. The charges include 73 counts of indecent assault and one count of attempted rape. He has, however, pleaded guilty before the jury to five counts of indecently assaulting the first complainant on dates between May and September 1976.

The offences are alleged to have taken place at various locations across the State between 1971 and 1981.

Third complainant cross-examined

Earlier on Friday, the third complainant — the alleged victim in the August 1975 incident — was cross-examined by defence barrister Patrick Gageby. He put it to her that she had fabricated claims that the man had ever molested or attempted to rape her. She rejected that assertion.

"You're trying to say I'm lying, is that what you're saying?" the complainant asked. When Gageby confirmed that was indeed his position, she replied: "Well, you're wrong."

Gageby also challenged her account of being given lifts by the accused, suggesting she had never received them "at all." The woman disagreed "wholeheartedly."

The prosecution alleges the man abused the third complainant in his car after offering her lifts, at the sports complex, and at a derelict house. According to her testimony, the abuse began when she was approximately eight years of age and ended after the alleged attempted rape in the summer of 1975, when she was around 12. It is further alleged that he indecently assaulted her in the early 1970s on multiple occasions.

Throughout cross-examination, Gageby returned repeatedly to the question of why she continued to accept lifts from the accused. "Yes, naive and stupid as it was," she acknowledged.

In re-examination, prosecution counsel James Dwyer asked the woman to describe her state of mind when she got into the man's car. "I would say I was almost on automatic pilot," she said. "It was routine. It had become normalised."

Jeans instead of skirts

The complainant also told the court she had changed her clothing habits in an effort to protect herself from the alleged abuse, switching from skirts to jeans.

The jury has heard that the prosecution's case describes the alleged abuse as encompassing kissing, inappropriate touching, digital penetration, forced oral sex, and — in relation to the third complainant specifically — attempted rape. That incident is alleged to have occurred in a changing room at the sports camp.

The third complainant's sister recalled that the changing rooms were out of bounds at lunchtime on the day in question, which is why she did not enter them when searching for her sibling. She said she found her only at the end of the lunch break, visibly distressed.

The trial continues.

Source: Irish Times