School soccer coach accused of sexually assaulting teenage girl

This article contains references to sexual assault and rape involving a teenager. Reader discretion is advised.

By Isabel Hayes and Eimear Dodd

A school soccer coach has gone on trial accused of sexually assaulting a teenage girl over a two-and-a-half year period.

The 61-year-old Dublin man pleaded not guilty at the Central Criminal Court to 30 counts of sexual assault, four counts of defilement, one count of rape and one count of anal rape at unknown locations within the State on dates between September 2007 and February 2010.

The complainant in the case was aged between 15 and 18 at the time of the alleged offending, while the accused man was aged between 45 and 47, Fiona Murphy SC, prosecuting, told the jury in her opening address.

Ms Murphy told the jury it would hear evidence that the accused man was working as a soccer coach in the girl’s school and that he became her team coach.

She said the man took the girl’s phone number, ostensibly to contact her about sports matters, but that over time the texts became “more personal”.

The court would hear evidence the coach became “a big feature in her life” and that he started collecting her at night and driving her around. The pair started kissing, which progressed to sexual activity, the court heard.

Ms Murphy said that although he was a married man with children, the girl “viewed herself as in a relationship with him”.

He organised rented accommodation where they would “go together for sexual activity”, the jury was told.

Prosecution counsel said the jury would hear the complainant was raped on two occasions – on one occasion when he accosted her and had sexual intercourse with her against her will, and another occasion in which they were in bed together and she woke up to find him attempting to have anal sex with her.

The complainant “made it clear she wished him to stop”, but he continued, Ms Murphy said.

In her direct evidence to the court, the complainant outlined that she was on a soccer team the man was coaching, and he asked for a telephone number to keep in contact with the team.

She said she volunteered her number and at first, the messages from the man were all soccer-related. However, she said he started to call her and they would regularly chat about their lives.

The complainant outlined that the man started to bring her and some of her team mates home after training. She said she was always the last to be dropped home. One time, he came to her home and introduced himself to her parents, the court heard.

She described how she started to go for drives with him around the winter of 2007/2008 when she was then in fourth year.

She said she told him his face was handsome on one occasion and afterwards, he said he was flattered and that he had had feelings for her.

She said their phone calls became more sexually explicit and he would ask her about her body. She said she didn’t like the language he used, describing some of it as “kind of disturbing”.

She described going for drives with the man, during which the sexually explicit conversation continued. She said “sometimes I felt excited because I liked him, but other times I felt nervous, it was overwhelming at times.”

She said the man pulled the car into a laneway on one occasion, where he kissed her for the first time.

He then started to rub her legs over her clothes, the court heard. She described other occasions when he touched her genital area and her breasts under her clothing. She said the touching took place every time they met after that.

She said she would also masturbate him. The man started to talk about wanting to have sex with her and she agreed to this in June 2008.

The first time they had sex was in the back seat of his car, the complainant told the court. She said the man initially used a condom, then removed it before continuing. The complainant said she was terrified and asked him to stop.

She said they had sex in the car at the same location on two other occasions.

She continued to go for drives with the man every evening.

Before she started fifth year in September 2008, she worked at a sports camp where the man was the head coach.

She said they would drive together to a local shop to get snacks during lunch. During the drive, he would masturbate, show her his erection and ask her to masturbate him, she told the court.

She told Ms Murphy that the man had had a falling-out with his wife around this time and was living somewhere else.

The man also became a coach for a soccer team she was playing with.

She said they were both at a christening and afterwards some friends wanted to get food, but she wanted to go home to use the bathroom.

She said he offered to drive her home, and she told her friends she’d be back in 10 minutes. However, he drove her to the place where he was staying and asked her for sex, she told the court. She said he touched her and she asked him to stop as her friends were waiting.

He later dropped her back to her friends, the court heard.

John Fitzgerald SC defending said his client denies he ever brought her on drives or had any sexual conversations when she was 16. The complainant said that statement was “not true’.

He brought her to a B&B and only took her there so she could use the toilet because if she went home she wouldn’t be allowed out again, the court heard. The woman said that was also untrue.

Mr Fitzgerald also put it to her that his client said a relationship started in late 2010, which lasted for six months. “I was pregnant with my first child, that’s disgusting, I wasn’t having sex with any other man,” she replied.

She further disagreed that in May or June 2019 the accused said that she had put her hand down his trousers.

The trial continues before a jury with Ms Justice Eileen Creedon presiding.