The trial of a Carlow man accused of raping his nieces has been hearing evidence from their mother, and from a former next door neighbour who claims she was also abused by him.

The 51-year-old accused man, who cannot be named for legal reasons, has pleaded not guilty at the Central Criminal Court to 91 charges of rape, attempted rape and indecent assault against the three girls in a Carlow town between February 1978 and December 1986.

The jury has heard evidence he went to live with his brother at the age of 13 when his parents died in the mid-1970s.

He is accused of raping and indecently assaulting his two nieces when they were aged between 6 and 13.

The younger of the two women, now aged 39, has given evidence that her uncle used to first bribe her into his bedroom on the promise of a Walnut Whip or to listen to his Wombles’s record.

She told the jury he raped her in a car when she was 11 and in his marital home while he watched pornography.

The girls’ next door neighbour, now aged 43, has told the jury that she was indecently assaulted by the man while she was in primary school.

The jury has also heard from the mother of the two girls.

She gave evidence that while her husband’s brother was living in the house there was one incident where she coul hear her younger daughter calling ‘mammy, mammy’.

She said she ran up the stairs to find the accused man at the bedroom door and her daughter on the bed who told her that her uncle had been at his trousers.

The girls' mother said she got such a shock, that she ran downstairs and told her husband.

She gave evidence that as he went upstairs he said ‘if you ever leave your hand on one of my children I will leave you dead’.

The court heard that the worst day of the woman’s life was the day her younger daughter told her she was being abused.