A barrister representing the uncle of the children at the centre of an abuse trial has told a jury the children's testimony bore all the hallmarks of of "a childish muddled up imagination".
The jury was hearing closing arguments from Senior Counsel Andrew Sexton who said his client vehemently denied the "devastating allegations" against him and was saying "in very simple terms he never abused these children".
He asked the jury to focus on the sexualised behaviour of the children and also referred to the foster parent’s testimony that the girl and the younger boy told lies and stories.
Mr Sexton said "there was almost a mini army investigating this family" and said the suggestion that these sexual offences were going on during these times "was implausible".
Mr Sexton acknowledged that "everybody has a natural sympathy for children" and accepted that the task that the jury had to "grapple" with was not easy.
"The more you examine this case, the cracks being to appear. You have a very unique set of people together, with all kinds of crazy, chaotic behaviour, which makes it very hard to assess what is actually going on," Mr Sexton said.
"My client is one of those odd collection of people. You may not like the odd behaviour but in relation to the criminal behaviour, doubts appear and I urge you to return not guilty verdicts," counsel submitted to the jury.
The 49-year-old has pleaded not guilty to 10 counts including rape, sexual assault and sexual exploitation.
The prosecution alleges he was "right in the middle" of the case and right in the middle of the family's affairs.
Senior Counsel Anthony Sammon SC, defending the man’s wife who is the children’s maternal aunt, told the jury at the Central Criminal Court that they should focus on evidence given during the trial, of one of the foster mother’s diary entries.
Mr Sammon told the jury that his client was facing three charges of sexual assault against the girl and the youngest boy in the case. The foster mother had taken them both in before their interviews with specialist gardaí about the allegations.
He said the entries by the foster mother described the children has having the "same convincing way of telling or making up stories" and she was concerned they could make things up about her family.
"The diary entry of the foster mother is vital in terms of your assessment of the credibility of the children’s evidence," he said.
Mr Sammon also referred the jury to evidence of an incident during which the girl asked if she could jump on her foster father’s lap and when he refused, she threatened to tell his wife that he had hit her. "This demonstrates a capacity to be malicious and to lie," Ms Sammon said.
He also reminded the jury of a point in the youngest boy's interview with gardaí during which he said a friend’s mother had touched that child’s privates. He said he was telling the garda this because his foster mother told him to write this incident down.
When the foster mother is asked about this later, she denied that she advised the boy to write it down.
"This raises a colossal credibility for that child at that time. You have to be extremely sceptical of evidence from a child who is doing this," Mr Sammon advised.
He also referred the jury to the fact that both these children "resiled from allegations" they made against their grandmother and their uncle’s partner, both of which have had the charges against them withdrawn during the course of the trial.
Referring to his client telling gardaí at one point during the interviews that the children were telling the truth, Mr Sammon said his client had "tied herself in knots". She had a consultation with her legal advisors and returned and confirmed that she did none of the things alleged against her, counsel said.
"The onus is on the prosecution to prove a case beyond a reasonable doubt. That phrase is used with such frequency now it has become somewhat devalued. My preference is to ask the jury to use the term 'rock solid’," counsel said.
"Sexual assault of a child is a very grave matter. Before you could arrive at a situation where you would be prepared to convict her you would have to be rock solid about the strength of the case against her and in my opinion you cannot do that in this case," Mr Sammon said.
The 35-year-old woman has pleaded not guilty to three counts, including sexually assaulting the girl and sexually assaulting one of the boys at locations in Munster on unknown dates between 18 August, 2014 and 28 April, 2016.
In his closing speech to the jury, Bernard Condon SC, prosecuting, said the children's aunt was "not a central player by any means".
"But that does not absolve her from her responsibilities," he said.
The court heard that the aunt told gardai that what the children were saying was truthful before later withdrawing that.
"She was leaning towards making admissions," Mr Condon said. "Some sort of admission about the children being truthful and then she came back (after a consultation with her solicitor) and said 'I did nothing'."
He said that while the two children she is accused of abusing resiled "a little bit" from their allegations in relation to their grandmother and their uncle's partner, "they did not make any such concession in relation to [her]."
The five family members, who can't be named for legal reasons, are accused of abusing three children between 2014 and 2016. The accused are the parents, aunt and uncles of the children. They range in ages from 27 to 56.
The parents are also accused of neglecting five of their children. All of the accused have denied the charges against them.
Reporting restrictions are in place to protect the welfare and identities of the children.
The trial continues tomorrow before Mr Justice Paul McDermott and a jury.
