Creche worker found not guilty of sexually assaulting one of four child complainants

A childcare worker has been found not guilty of sexually assaulting one of four child complainants in a creche.

On day 22 of the trial at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court the jury returned verdicts on Monday on five of 23 charges of sexual assault allegedly carried out by the 29-year-old man.

The jury foreman asked Judge Elma Sheahan for more time to continue deliberations on the outstanding charges.

The defendant, who cannot be named for legal reasons, had pleaded not guilty to 23 counts of sexually assaulting the girls at the creche on dates between August 2014 and December 2016, when they were aged between five and eight years old.

The prosecution alleged the accused man sexually assaulted the girls, who were all part of a “small circle of friends”, at various locations within the creche, including an after-school room, the toilets and on the creche bus.

The allegations came to light in December 2016 when one of the girls told another child she had kissed the man’s “privates” and this was repeated to another worker in the creche.

Gardaí­ were notified by one of the girl’s parents and obtained CCTV footage from the creche the following day, before interviewing each complainant in January 2017.

Videos of each child’s interview with specially trained gardaí­ was played to the jury, and each child was then cross-examined via video-link. Their parents also gave evidence.

The jury has acquitted the defendant of three counts in relation to one child, with seven charges outstanding in relation to this child.

The jury also found the accused not guilty of two charges relating to the fourth complainant who he was alleged to have assaulted on dates between August 2014 and February 2015.

In crossexamination this child told the man’s lawyers that when she spoke to garda interviewers in January 2017 she was confused by some of the things the first complainant had told her.

In her closing address, Orla Crowe SC, prosecuting, told the jury the man sexually assaulted the children in a “quick, furtive, audacious manner” in locations that were outside the line of vision of the creche CCTV cameras.

She submitted children of such a young age would not have made up such allegations and had no reason to do so.

Sean Guerin SC, defending, submitted to the jury that they were dealing with “suggestibility” between a group of friends, who were talking and sharing jokes. He said the fourth child changed her initial account of what happened to her after speaking to the first child directly before her interview with specialist gardaí.

The verdicts delivered so far are by majority after one juror was discharged on Monday morning when she did not attend for jury service.