A MAN was found guilty by a jury of 12 counts of indecent assault on a girl he was babysitting in her own home over 40 years ago.
The man, who cannot be named due to reporting restrictions, was found guilty on 12 unanimous verdicts.
The man closed his eyes after the first guilty verdict was read out in court. He kept them closed as court registrar read out the remaining 11 guilty verdicts.
The man showed no emotion after the verdicts were delivered following his trial at Limerick Circuit Criminal Court.
The victim, who was aged between nine and 11 when the man sexually abused her and ordered her to perform sex acts on him, wept in court as the verdicts were read out.
The victim gave evidence in the man’s trial that he ordered her to perform sex acts on him on multiple occasions when he was babysitting her when she was a little girl.
The victim said the man would go to her bedroom at night and “whisper” in her ear to “come downstairs”, where he would order her to undress him and perform sex acts on him.
The victim told the court she never forgot the “dirty smell” that emanated from the accused’s genitals when he first assaulted her.
The victim said the sex abuse occurred “every time he babysat” her.
The victim said the defendant, who was in his late teens at the time, would also masturbate himself while standing in front of her.
“I didn’t know what to do, I was frightened, I was so little,” the victim told the court.
She said the defendant tried to groom her by allowing her to stay up late. She said there would be crisps, chocolate, and fizzy drinks placed out for her, but she never took them because she was “too afraid”.
The victim said the defendant had told her not to tell anyone.
She said the sex abuse stopped when the defendant started a relationship with a woman.
Trial judge Colin Daly, having heard from prosecution counsel John O’Sullivan, instructed by State Solicitor Padraig Mawe, ordered that reporting restrictions in respect of the man’s identity would “continue until any further orders are made”.
The judge ordered the man be immediately added onto a sex offenders register for an undetermined period.
The judge also granted an application by the man’s barrister for an extension for legal aid for a medical report to be provided to the court in respect of the defendant.
The judge remanded the man on continuing bail for sentence on June 4.
– Court Reporting Scheme