A 36-year-old Mayo farmer has been found guilty by a Central Criminal Court jury on 25 charges of rape and sexual assault if two neighbouring sisters who were babysitters for him.
Mr Justice Liam McKechnie remanded the father of three in custody for sentence on October 28 next and directed the preparation of victim impact reports for that hearing.
The jury of four women and eight men returned unanimous verdicts on all the charges before them after about nine hours deliberations. It was day-12 of the hearing and the jury spent one night in a hotel.
The 36-year-old married accused had pleaded not guilty to a total of 27 charges, 17 of them relating to a now 18-year-old complainant on dates from September 1998 to May 1999 and 10 of them involving her elder sister on dates from April 1994 to September1995.