Donegal man goes on trial accused of sexual abuse dating back 50 years

A Donegal man has gone on trial accused of sexually abusing his foster mother’s nephew for eight years.
The 63-year-old accused has pleaded not  guilty at the Central Criminal Court to 35 charges of indecent assault of the boy on dates between 1966 and 1974.
The complainant was aged between seven and eighteen years old at the time, while the accused was six years older, the court was told.
Caroline Biggs SC, prosecuting told the jury it will hear evidence that the accused was a foster child of the complainant’s aunt.
She said it was the State’s case that the accused first molested the complainant in cowsheds and fields near their Donegal home. He also allegedly threatened the boy not to tell anyone.
Ms Biggs said the sexual assaults continued when the family moved and that in these incidents the accused again molested the complainant.
The now 57-year-old complainant told Ms Biggs the accused had a domineering personality and was taller than him.
He described him as being “top dog”, “higher up in the pecking order” and would give him a punch here, a shove there and twist his arm behind his back.
“I didn’t have the capacity to fight back,” the complainant told the court.
The trial continues before Mr Justice Paul Carney and a jury of five women and seven men.