A Dublin man who was acquitted by a Central Criminal Court jury last week of raping a woman in 1999 has been jailed for assaulting her.
The jury found the 27-year-old man guilty of the assault charge and not guilty of sexual offence charges after almost eight hours deliberations on Friday. It had delivered its first not guilty verdict before being sent to a hotel on Thursday night on a charge of "rape under section 4" of the Act which alleged he had sexually assaulted the woman.
The man, who cannot be named for legal reasons, had denied four sexual offence charges, including rape and oral rape, on the now 20-year-old woman on the same occasion on November 14th, 1999, in a Drumcondra lane.
Mr Justice McKechnie jailed him for two years on the assault causing harm charge and backdated the sentence to January 2000.