Sex abuse trial hears allegations of apology

Sex abuse trial hears allegations of apology

18 February 2015

A BALLYNAHINCH man accused of child sex abuse is alleged to have written an anonymous letter of apology in which he said his “head went silly”.

Christopher O’Hare, on trial for rape and indecent assault involving two girls, is alleged to have said he was sorry for the “trouble” caused and that he was “ashamed” to put his name to the letter.

Seventy-year-old O’Hare, of Drumsnade Road, is accused of four counts of rape and 12 of indecent assault. The offences are alleged to have occurred locally between 1977 and 1990.

He denies all charges.

So far the court has heard from the first alleged victim, who said she was brutally sexually assaulted in “a pit” in a garage, in a derelict building and in the man’s home. A second complainant is due to give evidence tomorrow.

At Downpatrick Crown Court on Friday the mother of the first alleged victim said she received the unsigned letter in 2003.

“I assumed it was from Christy O’Hare,” she said.

Read to the court, it stated: “I think I loved them so much my head went silly. Tell them I really am sorry for the trouble I caused them. I still love you all as much as ever even if they hate me.”

“I am so afraid to lose everything. I am not an evil person. I did not set out to do any harm,” the letter read.

Pointing to the vagueness of the letter, defence barrister John Orr QC questioned why there was a reference to “them” in the letter, and asked why the alleged victim was not referred to directly.

“Suddenly this letter appears out of thin air,” he said. 

Mr. Orr also pointed to a number of discrepancies between the mother’s evidence to the court on Friday and her daughter’s evidence. He also went on to dispute the date of a reported telephone confrontation between the alleged victim and O’Hare.

Giving her evidence, a relative of the alleged victim told the court about an overnight visit to O’Hare’s.

She said she had been sharing a room with her relative and remembered waking and hearing her cry out. She said O’Hare was sitting by the bed with a banjo or guitar.

“xxx then started to cry my name,” she told the court. “He then left the room.” 

She told the court “something didn’t feel right” about the situation.

She told the court of an incident years later when a man called to her relative’s home and wanted to hand over “some twenties in a bundle.” But the money was refused.

Witness statements were also read to the court from another relative who claimed to have witnessed the telephone confrontation between the alleged victim and O’Hare, and a psychologist who attended the complainant before she pressed charges.

The psychologist said the woman was not initially prepared to talk to the rest of her family about her allegations, or to to police. She said she also felt guilty about the impact on her family.