A Co Westmeath man has been cleared at the Central Criminal Court on all charges of raping and sexually assaulting his girlfriend's now 11-year-old sister.
A jury found the 23-year-old man not guilty on five of the charges after just under three hours of deliberation and also acquitted him by direction of Mr Justice Barry White on three further charges.
Mr Justice White discharged him from the court.
He had pleaded not guilty to two charges of rape, two of oral rape and four of sexually assaulting the then seven to eight year-old complainant on dates from January 1st, 2002 to May 31st, 2003. It was day four of the trial.
A heated verbal exchange took place before the court rose after prosecuting counsel Pauline Walley SC told Mr Justice White she had been instructed by the Director of Public Prosecutions to put on record that his charge to the jury had been "biased, unbalanced and unfair".
Mr Justice White angrily rejected the State's allegation and said that in his view the prosecution had lost all objectivity in its handling of the case. He said he had indicated that in his charge but had also told the jury that it was his view which the four women and eight men could totally disregard when deliberating.
Mr Justice White added that the State could have called on him to discharge the jury if it thought his charge was unbalanced but had not done so.
The complainant's mother was ordered out of the court by a garda when - during the exchange between the judge and counsel - she shouted at Mr Justice White: "I hope you can sleep easy tonight in your bed."