'Capt Cooke' guilty of assaults

The founder of the illegal Radio Dublin pirate station has been found guilty of sexually assaulting young girls at his home some…

The founder of the illegal Radio Dublin pirate station has been found guilty of sexually assaulting young girls at his home some 30 years ago.

Eamonn "Captain" Cooke (70), with addresses at Heatherview Avenue, Tallaght, and Wheatfields Court, Clondalkin, was convicted by a jury at the Central Criminal Court on 37 of the 42 charges before it.

It reached its unanimous guilty verdicts following just 59 minutes deliberatiing on day 15 of the trial.

Ms Justice Maureen Clark sent the jurors to a hotel overnight and they will resume consideration of the five outstanding counts this morning.

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Cooke had denied the 42 charges of indecent assault on two complainants from January 1974 to May 1978 at an address in Dublin. He gave evidence in which he claimed the allegations were made to "blacken my name" and to divert attention from an employee he claimed he fired for "embezzling money from the company" which ran the illegal radio station.