A father forced his young son to have sex with his mother, among other instances of rape and sexual assault, the Central Criminal Court has heard this week.
The now 12-year-old boy gave evidence via video-link and has alleged that he was raped on average once a month by his parents over a three-and-a-half year period since he was six years old.
It was the heard that the boys father would torture him with hot pokers, rape him and force him to conduct sex acts on his mother, and that he would put a gun to his head and threaten to kill him if he told anybody, according to the Irish Times.
Referring to his father, he said:
“He’d hit me, he’d rape me, he’d force me to do a lot of stuff that I didn’t want to do.”
He said that his father would take a hot poker and “he would put it up me and put it on me and burn me and it would hurt”.
The child added that his father “always forced us to have sex, me and my mum. He would threaten us, basically if you don’t do this, I will kill you.”
He described that the first time it happened, the father “demonstrated” by having sex with the woman, and then telling the child to do the same.
His parents face a total of 82 charges of abuse between 2007 and 2011 in Waterford.
The parents have pleaded not guilty to 16 counts each of sexual exploitation and one charge each of child cruelty.
The mother has also denied 16 counts of sexual assault while the father denies 16 counts of anal rape and 16 counts of sexual assault with a poker.
Both parents told Gardaí that the boy was “difficult” and had attention deficit hyperactivity disorder and behavioural problems.
The child is currently in foster care and the trial is ongoing.
