The jury hearing a High Court action by a woman who claims her father sexually abused her as a child has been sent home until tomorrow Thursday.
The jury, of ten men and two women, began considering their verdict about 3.30pm on Wednesday. They returned to court before 5pm when the foreman told Mr Justice Michael McGrath he did not think a unanimous decision would be achieved.
The judge said, given the amount of evidence they heard, the issues in the case, and the length of time they had been in the jury box, he did not want them to arrive at a decision under pressure. If they were to sit late, it had to be borne in mind whether jurors would suffer fatigue, wittingly or unwittingly, the judge added. He was therefore sending them home and asking them to resume their deliberations in the morning.
In her action, the woman, now in her 30s, claims she was abused not just by her father but by her mother, neighbours and others both in the family home and in other houses in their area.
The father denies the claims and says the events she describes never happened. The woman claimed, as a result of the alleged abuse, she suffered serious psychological and emotional damage throughout her life.