A 23-year-old Dublin man has been remanded in custody for sentence on October 6th on a charge of sexually assaulting a young mother a year ago. The woman told the jury at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court she was terrified to find the man in her bed at about 4 a.m. after "a freezing cold hand" touched her stomach.
She said that, sometime earlier, she thought her youngest daughter had crawled into her bed until she was woken by the hand on her stomach. She recognised her neighbour in her bed.
The jury took two hours to find the man guilty of sexually assaulting the woman on September 16th, 1996.
The accused told the jury he had been drinking heavily during the previous day. He was chased by a gang of youths near his home and was unaware until he woke that he was not in his own house.
A garda told prosecuting counsel, Mr Conor Devally, that the accused man made a statement in which he described getting into a bed in the house and falling asleep. He did not remember anyone else being in the bed and the next thing he was aware of was being put out of the house.