A CORK man has been found guilty by a jury of sexually assaulting his former girlfriend's teenage daughter. He has been remanded in custody for sentence on June 4th next.
The jury at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court took just over two hours to convict him of 15 charges of sexually assaulting the now 16 year old girl. The trial "lasted five days before Judge Kieran O'Connor.
The 36 year old man had pleaded not guilty to 20 charges of indecent assault and sexual assault on the girl on dates during the years l989 to 1993.
The jury heard the girl claim she was sexually assaulted by her mother's lover every day during those years. The jury was also told the man was ordered out of the house in November 1993 when her mother caught him with his hand under the girl's bedclothes.
The man denied the allegations bin evidence to the jury. He rejected the suggestion in cross examination by Mr Patrick McCarthy, prosecuting, that his leaving the girl's home so suddenly in November 1993 was consistent with him being thrown out for interfering with her.
He said he left the house because he was ann9yed at catching the girl's mother in a compromising situation in the early hours of the morning with one of his oldest male friends. He knew then it was the end for them.
The girl's mother told the jury of six men and six women that she and her former lover had lived like "brother and sister" without any sexual contact for almost two years before she ordered him out of her house. She claimed she herself had been sexually abused as a child.
Her former lover denied abstinence, and told his counsel, Mr Blaise O'Carroll SC (with Mr Brendan Grehan), they had had a sexual relationship until he left.
The jury also heard both the woman and the defendant admit had smoked hash and used magic mushrooms.
During the trial, the girl walked out of the video link room on two successive days, refusing to answer any more questions. She returned to the court on the third day and completed her evidence directly from the witness box.