THE TRIAL of a man from the New Ross district area charged with four counts of indecent assault has begun at Wexford Circuit Criminal Court.

The man, who cannot be named for legal reasons, is charged with committing the alleged offences on four separate occasions during the 1980s. The alleged victim in the case is the accused man’s niece by marriage.

The case opened on Wednesday when State Prosecutor, Philip Sheahan B.L. gave a brief outline to the jury.

He said that while there are four counts before the court each one of them should be treated separately.

“There are four counts on the indictment and that means there are four matters running separately and should be treated separately,” he said.

“You will hear evidence that an indecent assault was perpetrated on the alleged victim,” he added.

He went on to comment: “The allegations are all of alleged indecent assault.”

Evidence in the case began on Thursday morning when the alleged victim took to the stand.

She told the court that the alleged offences occurred on two dates during the summer of 1984 when she was aged seven and eight. The two other counts she stated occurred at Christmas of that year and during the summer of 1985.

She claimed the assaults occurred when she was staying at the defendant’s home during the school holidays and she also said her fear of the defendant turned to anger two years later when in August 1987 he bought her a birthday present of a bike.

“Everyone thought that it was brilliant and that I should have been delighted but I wasn’t,” she said.

“It just made me feel really angry.”

The court heard the woman subsequently told her mother what happened and she was told she would never have to go there again.

In her evidence she explained that she was prompted to report the alleged abuse to the Gardai shortly after the death of her own father two years ago. The jury was also told the woman’s late father did not know about the alleged assaults.

The case is expected to end this week.