A man has been convicted at the Central Criminal Court of raping one of his sisters more than 25 years ago. The jury took just over five hours to find the 47-year-old Dublin builder guilty by a 10-to-1 majority on the sixth day of the hearing.
The jury of six men and five women, who were accommodated overnight in a hotel, found him not guilty on five other counts of raping his sister and, by direction of Mr Justice Murphy at the conclusion of the evidence, of three further charges of indecent assault of this sister.
Earlier the jury had returned unanimous verdicts of guilty after two hours' deliberation on three charges of indecently assaulting the victim, who is now 35 and married, on dates between 1973 and 1978, and on one charge of indecently assaulting another sister.
Mr Justice Murphy remanded the man, who is a father of three, for sentencing on October 9th, and directed the preparation of victim impact and probation reports.
He agreed to an application by Mr Damian Colgan (with Mr Patrick J. McCarthy SC), defending, for a remand on bail until the sentence date on strict conditions.
Mr Ciaran O'Loughlin SC (with Ms Melanie Greally), prosecuting, said his instructions were to oppose bail in view of the jury's verdicts.
Mr Colgan said his client had honoured his bail conditions at every turn and proved his reliability. He was also contracted to build a house and was prepared to abide by conditions.
Mr Justice Murphy directed that he sign on daily at his local Garda station and lodge £6,000 cash in court. He also directed that the defendant make no contact with witnesses, and that his passport remain surrendered.
The man had pleaded not guilty to a total of 13 charges of rape and indecent assault on his two sisters. He claimed in evidence that his first sister was spiteful to him and that the other had been coerced into making her allegation.