A 42-YEAR-OLD man has been found guilty in Tralee of the multiple rape and sexual assault of a then 10-year-old girl in her home in a town in south Kerry in the Christmas period 2001/2002.
The eight counts on which the man, who is not a relative, was found guilty included two counts of oral rape, three counts of rape, two of sexual assault one of attempted anal rape .
He was acquitted of the rape and sexual assault of her older sister during the same period.
The jury of six men and six women had spent just under three hours deliberating on the matter at the Central Criminal Court in Tralee before bringing in unanimous verdicts after the five day trial.
(There were originally 11 counts but one count of sexual assault was withdrawn from the jury). The court heard upsetting evidence from the two young women how their mother was “always drinking”. She would go out with her then live in boyfriend and the man would babysit the two girls and a number of younger siblings. When the older girl revealed to neighbours her allegations he was asked to leave the house.
The younger girl told the jury she remembered on one occasion being carried from her bed to a back bedroom when her mother was out drinking. He was drunk and staggering, she had been wearing a pink nightdress with a monkey on it.
The man had raped her in the back bedroom and he had also orally raped her. He had stopped when she screamed when he attempted to rape her anally, she told the jury.
During the attack “he said the same thing as always . . . good girl”, she told the jury.
On another occasion she vomited after oral rape in the sitting room of the house and he told her to fetch a towel to clean it up, she said.
School records of the older girl showed high levels of absenteeism, the jury heard.
The man, who is from a large family from outside Kerry had denied all counts. He had told gardaí who had travelled to London in 2009 to interview him that it was “two sisters making up stories” and that he would never touch a child.
The man said he had stayed in the house and would babysit the children on a Saturday night. He could not remember their names.
He repeatedly denied he had touched the girls.
“It’s two sisters making up stories . . . I would never touch a child,” he replied to questions put to him by interviewing gardaí.
He said the account of oral rape was “disgusting” and he also replied to gardaí when the allegation was put to him that he did not understand what anal rape was.
He was later extradited and charged. He was remanded in continuing custody yesterday and is to be placed on the register of sex offenders.
Reporting restrictions are to remain and will be clarified on sentencing in Dublin on November 28th, Mr Justice Barry White ordered. Ms Isobel Kennedy SC for the prosecution said there was a possibility naming the man may identify the victim. Anthony Sammon SC was for the defence.