A woman who says she was sexually abused by her mother from the age of three has denied that her allegations arose from a deep and lasting resentment about being neglected as a child.
The woman was being cross examined by a defence lawyer who said social workers had found their family home to be damp, dirty and cold with a kitchen full of cigarette smoke.
Defence counsel Desmond Dockery said it was understandable the complainant felt anger and resentment towards her mother because as a young teen, she often had to mind her younger siblings as her mother grappled with grief, alcohol and trying to hold down a job.
Three people are on trial including the complainant's mother and uncle who are charged with raping and sexually assaulting her when she was a very young child.
The woman's mother faces 13 charges of sexual assault and a charge of rape relating to an incident where she allegedly facilitated the rape of her daughter at the age of six.
The complainant's uncle is charged with six counts of rape including oral rape.
A third man, who was a family friend, faces one count of oral rape.
All three deny all the charges. They cannot be named to protect the anonymity of the complainant.
During cross examination by senior counsel Desmond Dockery representing the woman's mother, the complainant denied that her sadness, resentment and anger about her childhood had "clouded her retrospective view".
The woman agreed that after leaving home to live with family friends while she was still in secondary school, she had been encouraged to go to counselling and speak to a garda.
She agreed that the family friends had heard rumours that her uncle had been "intimate" with her and was also was having sexual relations with her mother. She agreed that she had told those friends and her counsellor that the rumours were untrue.
She said the reason for this was because she was not able at that time to deal with what had happened to her but some years later, made a disclosure about the sexual abuse to a rape crisis counsellor.
The woman denied that the family friends had been "actively on her case" and "stirring things up" about reporting the matter to gardaí.
She agreed that they had made statements to the gardaí and had previously alerted social workers to their concerns about the family but she denied they had put her under any pressure to speak to the gardaí.
Counselling notes which recorded her describing the family friends as having coercively controlled her and one of them being physically violent were put to the woman. Mr Dockery said these descriptions were at odds with her direct evidence yesterday about those friends.
The complainant said their relationship had soured in later years after she had moved out of their home to live in another country in a property which had been left in trust for her by a relative.
It was put to her that earlier in her childhood her mother had been grappling with the death of her parents and sister within a short time frame while managing many young children and a job.
The woman replied: "We were all neglected and at no point did that get any better, so whether she was grappling with things or not it never got any better."
She agreed that she would have to get up during the night to tend to one of her baby brothers when he cried in his cot beside her mother and stepfather.
It was put to her that she understandably held a deep and lasting resentment towards her mother.
The woman replied that she did not know if she still felt resentment but she wanted her mother to "do better and she never did". She denied that her mother only drank at weekends. The woman said "she drank and then let loose at the weekends".
It was put to her that her mother never sexually assaulted her to which she replied: "She did."
In her evidence to the court yesterday she said her first memory of sexual abuse by her mother was when she was aged three.
Mr Dockery today asked her if a three year old would have complied with the request to perform a sexual act without "crying, throwing a tantrum or running away".
The woman replied "I did it".
Mr Dockery told the woman it was very sad for her and she had not been dealt the best cards in life, but he had to suggest to her that she had not been sexually mistreated in the way she suggested. The woman said she had been sexually abused by her mother.
Her cross examination continues.
