Juror wrote to presiding judge after verdicts returned in Munster child abuse trial

One of the jurors in the Munster child abuse trial wrote a letter to the judge after the trial was over, the Central Criminal Court has heard.

Five family members were found guilty of all but one of the 78 counts against them following a ten week trial that took place between May and August this year.

An extended jury panel of 15 was empanelled at the start of the trial, which took place in Croke Park. Just 12 jurors took part in the deliberations, which ran for nearly 20 hours.

The three men and two women who were found guilty appeared in the Central Criminal Court on Monday in order to set a date for their sentence hearing.

Mr Justice Paul McDermott told the court he recently received a letter from a member of the jury in the trial. He said he was not going to go into the contents of the letter, which involved the juror’s “views of the jury system”.

The judge handed out copies to all of the barristers involved in the case to ensure everyone was “fully appraised of what happened”.

The judge said he was of the view that the letter should not prevent him from proceeding to sentence the accused. Bernard Condon SC, prosecuting, agreed with the judge.

The judge said he would give the defence teams leave to return to court at a later date if they wished to raise any concerns about the contents of the letter.

The five family members, who cannot be named for legal reasons, were found guilty of sexually abusing three children between 2014 and 2016. They are the parents, aunt and uncles of the children. They range in ages from 27 to 56.

All of the offences took place in Munster on unknown dates between August 2014 and April 2016.

The parents were also found guilty of wilfully neglecting five of their children while the father was found guilty of mistreating three of them by giving them medication. All of the defendants had denied all of the charges against them.

Extensive reporting restrictions are in place to protect the identities of the children, who were taken into care in 2016.

Mr Condon said that victim impact reports would be ready by the start of December. He estimated the sentence hearing would take up to two days.

Anthony Sammon SC, representing the aunt, told the court that a psychologist engaged to work with the 35-year-old woman had asked for three months to complete his report.

Accordingly, Mr Justice McDermott set a sentence date of January 10th next year. He remanded all five in continuing custody until then.

The 56-year-old father was found guilty of all 31 counts against him. In relation to the three older children, he was found guilty of six counts of rape, six counts of sexual assault, three counts of permitting other people to engage in sexual activity with a child and three counts of sexually exploiting two of them.

He was also found guilty of 10 counts of wilfully neglecting five of his children and three counts of mistreating three of his children by giving them medication.

The 34-year-old mother was found guilty of all 25 counts against her, including 10 counts of wilful neglect. In relation to the three older children, she was found guilty of 10 counts of sexual assault, three counts of permitting other people to engage in sexual activity with a child and two counts of sexually exploiting her oldest son.

The children’s 35-year-old aunt was found guilty of all three counts, including two counts of sexually assaulting the girl and one count of sexually assaulting the second oldest boy.

The children’s 49-year-old uncle – the husband of their maternal aunt – was found guilty of all 10 counts against him. He was found guilty of five counts of sexual assault, three counts of sexual exploitation and two counts of rape.

The 27-year-old uncle was found guilty of eight of the nine charges against him. He was found guilty of six counts of rape and two counts of sexual exploitation. He was found not guilty of one count of sexually exploiting the girl.