{"id":550707,"date":"2026-06-23T21:25:15","date_gmt":"2026-06-23T21:25:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/550707\/"},"modified":"2026-06-23T21:25:15","modified_gmt":"2026-06-23T21:25:15","slug":"former-sports-coach-70s-accused-of-sexually-assaulting-four-girls-in-1970s-and-1980s-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/550707\/","title":{"rendered":"Former sports coach (70s) accused of sexually assaulting four girls in 1970s and 1980s \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

A former sports coach \u201cexploited his position of authority\u201d by sexually assaulting four girls who were \u201centrusted into his care\u201d some 50 years ago, a jury at the Central Criminal Court<\/a> has heard.<\/p>\n

The man (70s) denies 73 counts of indecently assaulting the children on dates between 1971 and 1981 and one count of attempted rape in 1975. The jury of six men and six women heard him plead guilty to five counts of indecently assaulting one of the girls on dates in 1976.<\/p>\n

They were told the complainants were aged between 10 and 15 when the alleged incidents occurred.<\/p>\n

Giving evidence on Tuesday, one of the complainants, whose father was friends with the man, told the jury the abuse against her was carried out over \u201cmany months\u201d when she was about 13, and involved French kissing, forced oral sex, and touching her breasts and vagina. <\/p>\n

He first abused her at a disco, when he led her to an office, pushed her against the desk, put his tongue in her mouth and touched her bottom, she said.<\/p>\n

In the second incident, she said, he ushered her into a room, \u201cput me on to my knees and pushed my head down\u201d. She recalled another occasion in his locked office when he allegedly kissed her, touched her vagina, and again pushed her head on to his penis. She said there were heavy net curtains on the windows but she could see her mother\u2019s car parked outside the building. Further abuse occurred at the man\u2019s home when she was babysitting his children, she said.<\/p>\n

She told the court she was an obedient child who \u201cdid not have a clue\u201d about sexual matters. She said it occurred at a time when if \u201can adult told you to hop, you just hopped. You just did what you were told.\u201d The abuse \u201cpetered out\u201d when she was about 14, she said.<\/p>\n

The man\u2019s five guilty pleas relate to counts of indecently assaulting this complainant on dates between May and September 1976. He denies the rest of the charges, including 29 concerning her. <\/p>\n

She said she decided to make a statement to garda\u00ed after her sister approached her in 2020 saying she would be making a report. The woman said she had not wanted to do anything about it while her parents were still alive. \u201cIt would have hurt my mother an awful lot and, indeed, my father had I come forward,\u201d she said. <\/p>\n

Opening the case earlier on Tuesday, prosecution senior counsel James Dwyer said two alleged assaults occurred when this complainant and her younger sister were sharing a bed and the man entered their room. Dwyer said the man put his tongue in the older sister\u2019s mouth and put her hands on his penis over his clothes. It is alleged he touched the younger sister\u2019s breasts.<\/p>\n

Another of the girls was about 12 when the man attempted to rape her in a changing room in the mid 1970s, said Dwyer.<\/p>\n

On various occasions during that decade he collected this complainant from coaching and assaulted her in his car, including teaching her how to kiss, counsel said. Once he allegedly drove her to a derelict house, digitally penetrated her and made her masturbate him until he ejaculated. <\/p>\n

Regarding the fourth girl, he is accused of putting his hand on her groin when giving her a lift to training when she was aged about 14.<\/p>\n

Dwyer said the man \u201cexploited his position of authority\u201d and sexually assaulted the girls who were \u201centrusted into his care\u201d.<\/p>\n

Judge M\u00edche\u00e1l O\u2019Higgins told the jury they must remember the accused is presumed innocent of the allegations and that the burden of proof rests with the prosecution. To convict, the jury must be persuaded of the evidence beyond reasonable doubt.<\/p>\n

The case resumes on Wednesday.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A former sports coach \u201cexploited his position of authority\u201d by sexually assaulting four girls who were \u201centrusted into…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":550708,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[3],"tags":[12767,9,10,18,17590,13,14,2527,147185,147184,6,789,19,42101,17,5428,11,12,34659,12808,15,16,520,3119,5,32294,119,147186,147187,17135,64259,59687,7,8,14529],"class_list":["post-550707","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-black","tag-breaking-news","tag-breakingnews","tag-eire","tag-equipment","tag-featured-news","tag-featurednews","tag-golf","tag-golf-club","tag-golf-driver-cap","tag-headlines","tag-horizontal","tag-ie","tag-individual-sports","tag-ireland","tag-iron","tag-latest-news","tag-latestnews","tag-light","tag-luxury","tag-main-news","tag-mainnews","tag-morning","tag-new","tag-news","tag-set","tag-sport","tag-sports-and-fitness","tag-sports-backgrounds","tag-sun","tag-sunlight","tag-sunset","tag-top-stories","tag-topstories","tag-tree"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@ie\/116801537834204356","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/550707","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=550707"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/550707\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/550708"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=550707"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=550707"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=550707"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}