Man, 63, found not guilty on six counts of sexual assault

Six of the eight sexual assault charges faced by a 63-year-old man on trial in Cork were not put to the jury as the judge directed them to find him not guilty on those counts.

The jury was then sent out by Judge Seán Ó Donnabháin to deliberate on the other two charges.

In respect of one female complainant who was five years old at the time of the alleged offence, the judge directed them to find the accused not guilty. He told them not to speculate on why he was so directing them.

He did likewise with five of the six charges in respect of a male complainant. The remaining charge which was put to the jury related to his allegation that he was sexually assaulted when the defendant fondled his penis when his car was stuck in traffic in Cork and the complainant was a front-seat passenger.

Defence senior counsel James O’Mahony submitted to the jury: “Stopped in traffic, is that a likely place for a sexual assault on a child to occur? It is so bizarre is it likely to have occurred?”

The second complainant told the jury the defendant touched his penis when he was in bed sick on one occasion, again back in the mid-1990s.

Mr O’Mahony SC said the prosecution informed the defence two days before the trial that this complainant was borderline schizophrenic.

Judge Ó Donnabháin sent the jury away until 10.30am this morning to resume their deliberations at Cork Circuit Criminal Court.