Man (39) has categorically denied claims he sexually assaulted nieces

[ad_1]

A 39-year-old man “categorically denied” allegations that he sexually abused his two young nieces, a jury said on Monday.

the accused, who cannot be named to protect the identity of the plaintiffs, is on trial in Belfast Crown Court on a total of eight historic sexual abuse charges.

The alleged offenses include sexual assault of a child, indecent assault and gross indecency.

As the Crown’s case against the north Belfast man lay open, the jury of six men and six women learned that one of the alleged victims was around two years old when the abuse began.

Prosecution attorney David McNeill said the abuse occurred over a period of 2000 to 2012, when the accused was between 18 and 31, and the two complainants were both nieces of the accused.

The first complainant alleged that she had been targeted by her uncle who was living in the family home at the time.

Her younger sister claimed she was abused by her uncle when she stayed home for sleepovers with her cousin.

Mr McNeill told the jury that the first complainant, who is now 25, was abused when she was between five and ten years old.

She claimed her ordeal began after entering her uncle’s bedroom while he was watching pornography.

She also remembers pretending to be asleep when her uncle walked into her room and abused her at night, and felt numb and shocked by the abuse.

Mr McNeill said the abuse ended when she left her mother’s home and went to live with her father when she was 11.

The second complainant, who is now 21, was between 2 and 11 years old when she was abused.

She remembers sleeping with her cousin, where she was abused by her uncle, and also claimed that she was targeted by him during a family vacation on the North Coast.

The jury heard that although the sisters did not reveal what happened to them until years later, as a child, the young girl told a relative that her uncle had touched her – but in the At the time, it was thought that she “invented things”.

In 2015, she told her partner what had happened and in the same year, her older sister also disclosed the abuse to a family member.

Mr McNeill said that in 2018 “things got out of hand”, prompting complainants to contact police.

In November 2019, the accused presented himself with the PSNI and when the allegations were brought to him, he “categorically denied having committed the offenses”.

At the hearing.

Download the Belfast Telegraph app

Get quick and easy access to the latest news, sports, business and opinion from Northern Ireland with the Belfast Telegraph app.

[ad_2]