Dublin man guilty of rape, buggery of niece

A Dublin man (35) has been found guilty by a jury at the Central Criminal Court of raping, buggering, and sexually assaulting…

A Dublin man (35) has been found guilty by a jury at the Central Criminal Court of raping, buggering, and sexually assaulting his niece over a number of years.

The jury took just under five hours to reach a unanimous verdict on all the charges after a four-day trial.

Mr Justice Barr remanded him on continuing bail for sentence on July 19th and ordered victim impact and probation reports.

The defendant pleaded not guilty to committing the offences on dates unknown between February 1984 and March 1989. The now 20-year-old victim asked her family to be excluded when she was giving evidence. She told prosecuting counsel Gregory Murphy SC the incidents happened from the time she was five years old when she visited her father at her grandparents' home after her parents separated.

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The abuse ended when she was 10 years old after she got very sick. She made no formal complaint until she made a full statement to a garda when she was 18. She said she had "bottled it all up" and still has difficulties recounting events to a counsellor due to gross embarrassment.