Kerry man guilty of intimidating prostitute

A Kerry man has been convicted of intimidating a sex worker into withdrawing rape allegations against him.

The 40-year-old man sent the woman texts messages and emails calling her a whore, and threatening to tell her family and neighbours that she was a prostitute.

A jury of six men and six women acquitted him of raping and sexually assaulting the woman in a hotel room in Dublin City on March 28, 2010. The jury found him guilty of two counts of threatening or putting in fear a witness in a garda investigation on dates between April 29 and May 28, 2010.

The man had pleaded not guilty at the Central Criminal Court to all charges. Both the accused and the complainant are entitled to anonymity under the Rape Act.

After a six-day trial the jury took just over two hours of deliberations to return the unanimous verdicts.

Mr Justice Patrick McCarthy thanked the jurors before remanding the man in custody until later this month when he will be sentenced.

Thomas Creed, defending, asked that the man be allowed to stay on bail saying that he would like to say goodbye to his children. The judge refused the application and said there was a potential for obstruction of justice.