A man has gone on trial accused of 121 charges including the rape and sexual assault of eight young boys over a 12-year period.
The Central Criminal Court heard the offences were allegedly committed between 1995 and 2007. The man has pleaded not guilty to all charges.
Prosecuting Counsel Dominic McGinn told the jury the accused “seems to have moved from one boy to the next” but there was some overlap of complainants.
The court was told a complaint was made to gardaí by three of the boys in 2000 but a prosecution was not brought at that time.
Mr McGinn told the jury the man would “lure the boys into conversation” by promising cigarettes. He said they would be “tempted by that and having got talking to them he would get them into the house and he preyed on their innocence, naivety and confusion at that age and carried out what he wanted to do.”
He said some were allegedly sexually assaulted while others were sexually assaulted and raped.
Mr McGinn said each of the boys was around the same age – ten or 11 – when it began. The abuse is alleged to have taken place in the accused man’s home and in other rural locations to which he drove the boys.
The first complainant will tell the jury he was abused between 1995 and 1996 when he was aged between 11 and 13. The jury will hear he was allegedly assaulted and raped at the accused man’s home.
The second complainant was aged 11 when the alleged offences occurred between 1997 and 1999 at the defendant’s home and at a rural location.
The next three complainants were members of the same family and were allegedly abused in a number of places by the accused man. The charges in relation to these boys relate to between 1997 and 2000.
The next three complainants were also members of the same family and the alleged abuse included rape and sexual assault. One of the boys will say the assaults took place on an almost daily basis. Mr McGinn told the jury the charges involving this boy were representative of what he says was happening at the time.
Mr McGinn said there had been a delay in bringing the matter to trial for various reasons.
He said a complaint was made by one family in 2000 and the matter was investigated by gardai but at that stage no prosecution was brought.
In later years another complainant attacked the home of the defendant and when it emerged why he had done so, his brothers came forward to say they had also been abused. Mr McGinn said up until then no one had wanted to speak about it.
The accused man denies all the charges. The trial continues tomorrow.
