A man accused of historic sex offences against his two young nieces told police the allegations were a conspiracy against him sparked by family problems.
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The man, 68, has pleaded not guilty to two charges of indecent assault, committing an act of indecency on a girl younger than 10 and carnally knowing a girl younger than 10.
He appeared in the ACT Magistrates Court on Wednesday when he was committed to stand trial.
Court documents alleged the abuse began when two of the man's nieces stayed with him and their grandmother at a house in Canberra's inner south for a few weeks in 1980.
One of the nieces claimed the man touched them inappropriately when he went into one of the bedrooms, where they slept on a mattress on the floor, to say goodnight.
She alleged her uncle later indecently assaulted and raped her at the house.
On other occasions the man went into the bush near the house and during annual family picnics at Tidbinbilla, and asked them to touch him inappropriately.
Court documents said the man would often buy lollies and treats for his nieces from Lyons shops and one day told them the abuse was "our little secret" that non one else needed to know.
Sharing what happened would "ruin the friendship", he allegedly said.
The girl told police her uncle's alleged offending continued for nearly a decade until he moved to the south coast.
The sisters first disclosed the abuse to their mother in the early 1990s.
That same year the girl allegedly received a letter from her uncle at Christmas asking him to forgive her for what he'd done and saying he had found God now.
Police began to investigate the man after another of his nieces went to police in 2010 and told them her uncle had sexually assaulted her on multiple occasions in the 1980s.
Court documents said the woman told police her uncle indecently assaulted her one night when she was staying at her grandmother's house.
She allegedly remembered asking him, "why are you doing that?", to which he is said to have responded "you like it."
Another time he allegedly invited the girl to get into his bed one day before school and committed an indecent act on her.
In an interview with police in 2013 the man denied the allegations and said the woman's memory had been "terribly distorted".
He later sent police a letter claiming the allegations were a conspiracy created as a result of family problems, court documents stated.
The man declined to give evidence or call any witnesses when he appeared for committal in front of Magistrate Bernadette Boss.
His case will be mentioned in the ACT Supreme Court next month.
