Man on trial accused of sexual assault of four girls at crèche

A 29-year-old man has gone on trial accused of sexually assaulting four girls when he worked in a crèche in Leinster.

The man has pleaded not guilty to 23 counts of sexually assaulting the four young children on dates between February 2015 and December 2016.

The girls were aged between five and eight-years-old at the time of the alleged assaults.

The offences are alleged to have taken place in various locations in the crèche, as well as on a bus owned by the facility.

The man faces ten counts of sexual assault in relation to the first girl, eight in relation to the second girl, three in relation to the third and two in relation to the fourth.

The man’s name and details of the location of the crèche cannot be reported to protect the identities of the children.

Prosecuting Counsel Orla Crowe said the man began working at the crèche in the kitchen, but subsequently began helping out with after-school children, who attended the crèche before and after going to one of the local national schools.

He began this work in 2013, but she said he was going to be let go in December 2016, as he had not reached the level of childcare qualification required by legislation.

The man’s job involved delivering children to school in the mornings and doing collection runs. He also supervised the older after-school children in the afternoons.

Ms Crowe said an allegation of sexual misconduct against the man first came to light on 12 December 2016.

One of the complainants in this case told a friend, who told another child, who then passed it on to a staff member. Parents were notified and went to gardaí who began an investigation.

The jury was told specially trained gardaí spoke to four girls. Videos of their interviews with the four children were recorded in January 2017 and will be shown to the court during the trial.

The court heard the children would be available to be cross-examined by the defence via video link.

Ms Crowe said the accused man faces a number of sample counts in relation to the first girl who says she was sexually assaulted on multiple occasions between September 2015 and June 2016 when she was seven and eight-years-old.

The assaults are alleged to have happened in the after-school room, on the school bus and in the crèche toilet.

The man is charged with eight sample counts in relation to the second girl who was between five and six-years-old when she alleges the assaults took place.

The third girl was eight at the time of the alleged assaults and the fourth girl was also eight.

The jury was told they would also hear from the children’s parents and the specialist garda interviewers.

The owner of the crèche where the man worked said the man had no qualification in child care when he started work but had started his training.

She said it was the policy in the company that staff had to be fully qualified or in the process of getting a qualification to work there.

He had done a one day child safeguarding workshop.

She agreed with the man’s defence counsel, Sean Guerin, that she was happy with him and felt it would be good to have a male role model in the crèche.

The woman said the man’s studies were going quite slowly. The law was changed and anyone working in a crèche after 31 December 2016 had to have a FETAC level 5 qualification.

She said the man had known for some time he would not be able to continue his employment because he did not have this qualification.

She said that on 12 December 2016 she was in the office when a staff member came to the door and said she needed to speak to her and to the manager.

The staff member said one of the afterschool pupils had told another girl that she had kissed the man in the privates and then laughed.

The woman said they were not quite sure how to take it. She was unsure if it was a genuine concern or if it was children being fanciful and talking about such matters.

They decided to notify the parents of the children involved. The next morning the father of one of the girls called into the crèche and told the manager he had a concern and was going to speak to gardaí.

The owner said she called the man in and told him there was a serious allegation and he would have to be suspended.

She said gardaí came to the crèche that afternoon with a warrant and retrieved footage from the CCTV system.

The owner said a matter had been brought to her attention earlier in 2016 in relation to the man. The manager told her that the parents of the third complainant in this case wanted clarification about something she had said about sitting on the man’s knee and him pushing her off.

She said the manager told her there was a misunderstanding. And she had explained to the parents that the crèche had a policy that afterschool children did not need to sit on care workers knees and the man was right to push her off.

The owner said sweets were only allowed in the crèche on party days or special occasions and they would not have had sweets lying around the rooms.

She said it was also the crèche’s policy that afterschool children did not need support while using the bathroom.

She said all the parents were notified on 15 December 2016 that an allegation had been made and a person suspended.

The trial, which is expected to last around three weeks, will continue on Monday.