Sexual assault trial begins in Waterford

The trial of a man accused of sexual assault has begun in Waterford Circuit Criminal Court.

The pension-aged man cannot be identified for legal reasons.

A jury of ten men and two women were empanelled, presided over by Judge Eugene O'Kelly.

The alleged incident is said to have occurred in Co Waterford some years ago.

The complainant is a woman who knew the man since she was a young teenager.

Prosecuting barrister Conor O’Doherty asked the complainant about her history with the accused. She testified that she trusted him as a father figure growing up.

She stated that he supplied her with alcohol on multiple occasions when she was underage.

After she turned 18, he employed her at a premises. At work, she noticed him sometimes staring at her intensely. "It was like he was looking through me. It was a strange power dynamic going on," she said.

When she went on nights out, he encouraged her to call him if she and her friends needed a lift home.

On one occasion, after dropping other people home, he allegedly solicited her for sexual favours. She refused his advances and he eventually dropped her home.

A month later, she came to the premises after a night out, at around 1am, because she wanted to go home.

She told the court: "I had drink taken but I still had my wits about me."

Inside the premises, he plied her with drink and after taking a few sips, she felt dazed. She said: "I just felt very drowsy all of a sudden."

She described laying down on a surface and losing consciousness: "I was looking at the ceiling, I remember feeling disassociated from my body."

In her testimony, after she regained consciousness she saw that her underwear, pants, and boots had been removed. She described seeing the man performing oral sex on her without her consent: "When I came around, I was in shock. I said: 'This is not funny, this is disgusting'. He was trying to brush it all off."

She said as she left the premises: "It was nearly bright out. I don’t know how long I was there for."

Shortly after she came home, the man allegedly sent her a text with a media file that she was unable to open. When she asked him what the picture was, he replied: "Your vagina."

The woman told the court that he soon showed her the picture in person, which greatly disturbed and upset her. She pleaded with him to delete the picture.

She told a friend about the incident, who advised her to go to the gardaí.

The woman said: " I thought if I didn’t speak it would be ok and I could deny it to myself."

She did not want to leave her job in the immediate aftermath because: "I felt if the news came out about this, I couldn’t cope."

Around a month later, the man’s wife and daughter confronted her after finding the alleged picture on the man’s phone. The wife allegedly shouted at her: "Oh look there she is being all f***ing defensive."

The daughter allegedly said to the accused man: "Dad how could you?"

Later on that evening, he called the complainant and said that he would "get on a ferry" if she went to the gardaí. She told him that she wouldn’t because, she told the court,: "I wouldn’t be able to deal with it."

Some years later, the woman saw a social media post made by the man that posited ideas regarding respect and dignity.

Upon seeing the post, which was sent to her and others, she said: "My blood began to boil."

She messaged him directly: "Are you for real? Practice what you’re preaching." He replied: "I’m sorry for how you feel. It’s given me pause for reflection."

During their back and forth, she wrote: "You raped me. I looked up to you as a father figure and you sexually assaulted me and you don’t have the decency to admit it."

The trial continues.