A jury has failed to agreed on three remaining counts of neglect and sexual abuse against a father of five earlier convicted of the neglect and physical abuse of some of his children.
The 42-year-old man was earlier this week found guilty at the Central Criminal Court of neglecting four of his children and three counts of assaulting each of his sons after a total eight and a half hours deliberation by the jury.
The jury failed to agree a verdict on day 13 of the trial on the final counts of rape and sexual assault of the man’s daughter and a charge of neglecting his youngest son after a further hour of deliberation following a re-playing of the 10-year-old girl’s video link evidence over the past two days.
Ms Justice Elizabeth Dunne thanked the jury of five men and seven women and exempted them from further jury service for life. She remanded the man in custody until his sentence date on June 18th next.
The five children, three boys and two girls, were aged between four and eleven when they were taken into care.
During the trial the court heard graphic evidence from social workers and foster parents of the condition of the children when they were taken into care in September 2007.
A social worker who described the level of long term dirt and grime on the girls said she initially believed they had dark hair and it was only on her next visit to them, after they had been washed by their foster parents, that she discovered they actually had fairer coloured hair.
The eldest boy, then 11, put food into his pockets as he ate hungrily when given chips by gardaí.
The foster mother of the two girls said that when they arrived at her house, aged eight and four, they were filthy, wearing soiled underpants and the youngest girl was “walking alive” with lice.
The woman gave evidence they were not toilet trained and ate “like savages.”
A woman whose children used to play in the neighbourhood with the two girls said they did not appear cared for and when she gave them food it was “like feeding Oliver Twist.
The now ten year old girl told Ms Isobel Kennedy SC, prosecuting, that her father raped her in her bedroom when she was eight.
The now 8-year-old second youngest child said that his father hit him “lots of times” using a belt and it hurt him.
The now 13-year-old second eldest boy said that his father kicked and punched him with his fists and also used shoes and belts to hit him. He said he was hit “everywhere really” with the belt but particularly on his back.
The eldest child, a 14-year-old boy, said his father hit him “on the backside” with his hands, shoes, a cane or a whip but that he thought his father only did so when he misbehaved.
The accused man told defence counsel, Mr Blaise O’Carroll SC, when giving evidence on his own behalf, that he and his wife had a plan that he “would take the blame for everything” to avoid the children going into care.
He said: “I would take the blame for everything and she would get the children but my wife went a little too far.”
When Mr O’Carroll asked why they had this plan, the accused told him “I did not think the children should go into care. At the time I did not. I thought she was a good mother.”
He told Mr O’Carroll that the only reason he could think of for his daughter alleging he had sexually abused her was that his wife had told her to say it.
During cross examination the accused claimed he was away at work during the day and did not see much of the children who he believed were being cared for by his wife.
The accused man had pleaded not guilty to the rape and sexual assault of his now 10-year-old daughter and the sexual assault of his now 13-year-old son on dates in 2007.
He also pleaded not guilty to the wilful assault of his three sons in a manner likely to cause unnecessary suffering, injury to the children’s health or seriously effect their well-being on dates between January and September 2007.
He further denied the wilful neglect of all five children, now aged between 7 and 14 years old, by failing to provide adequate clothing or food.
During the trial Ms Justice Dunne directed a verdict of not guilty of the sexual assault of his son because “there was simply no evidence of any kind to support that charge.”