Evidence continues in Donegal sexual assault case

A teenager has told a Central Criminal Court jury that a friend’s father gave her “five or six” bottles of beer before putting her hand on his penis while she was on a sleepover.
The 44-year-old Donegal man, who can not be named for legal reasons, pleaded not guilty to three counts of sexually assaulting three 13-year-old girls on separate dates between February 2006 and January 2007.
The trial continues before Mr Justice Patrick McCarthy and a jury of six men and six women.
The first complainant told Prosecuting Counsel John O’Kelly that she was staying overnight at the accused man’s house on January 6th 2007 because her mother was out visiting a friend.
She said that she, the accused and his daughter sat watching a DVD in the sitting room and had “five or six” drinks. She said her friend felt sick and went up to bed leaving her downstairs with the accused, at which point he took her hand and placed it on his crotch.
The girl told Defence Counsel Peter Finlay that she did not remember having a falling out with the accused man’s daughter about not being invited to an event. She refuted a suggestion by Mr Finlay that the accused and his partner had been staying in another person’s house on January 6th 2007.
She agreed that she had first spoken about the alleged incident with friends about three months later.