A CO Offaly farmer was remanded in custody to June 27th following his conviction at the Central Criminal Court last night of sexually abusing six children on dates from 1967 to the late 1980s.
The jury of to men and two women took just over 2 1/2 hours to reach the unanimous verdicts on 13 counts of unlawful carnal knowledge and indecent assault.
A short time later, after Mr Justice Geoghegan reread portions of the evidence, the jury returned and convicted the defendant on four outstanding charges.
Originally, the 63 year old single man, who cannot be named for legal reasons, had denied a total of 22 charges in relation to the six women, four of whom are sisters. However, the number of charges was reduced and some charges were amended to simplify the indictment.
The victims, whose ages range from 20 to over 40, embraced each other and family members on hearing the verdicts at the conclusion of the three day case.
During the trial the women told prosecuting counsel Mr Erwan Mill Arden SC they had each been abused in various ways by the defendant on dates up to their early teens.
The abuse took place while they had been working or playing on the defendant's farm during the summer months.
Each victim had been unaware the defendant had interfered with others and the whole matter remained a secret until April 1994 when the 33 year old sister broke down at a "hen" party during a discussion on first sexual experiences.
When questioned by defence counsel Mr Seamus Sorahan SC, two of the women made it clear they did not want the defendant's money.
In evidence, the defendant claimed the women had conspired against him because he had "run" a number of them from his farm when they were children.
He also suggested they may have been after his farm or compensation. He agreed he had signed over the farm to his younger sister after gardai questioned him about the allegations. He claimed he had been thinking about doing this for some time previously.
The man also told Mr Sorahan that be had never had any interest in women and would "rather put his arm around a bullock". He had also enjoyed shooting but gave this up out of consideration for animals.