Man accussed of sexually assaulting daughter’s friends

A Donegal man has gone on trial accused of sexually assaulting three teenage girls staying overnight at his home on separate occasions.
The 44-year-old man, who can not be named for legal reasons, has pleaded not guilty at the Central Criminal Court to three counts of sexually assaulting the then 13-year-old girls on dates between February 2006 and January 2007.
Prosecuting counsel, Mr John O’Kelly SC, told the jury in opening the case that they would hear evidence that there were similarities between the three alleged incidents in the man’s family home.
He said the girls were friends of the accused man’s daughter and each girl was staying over night in her home at the time of the alleged offences.
He said the first alleged incident began with the accused giving his daughter and one of her friends alcohol. His daughter felt ill and went to bed leaving her friend alone in the sitting room with her father. He attempted to get her to touch him, and she fled from the room.
Mr O’Kelly said it was the State’s case that the incidents involving the other two girls took place as the girls slept in the accused man’s daughter’s bedroom. Again, he tried to get the girls to touch him.
The trial continues before Mr Justice Patrick McCarthy and a jury of six men and six women.