Majority verdict option in abuse case

The jury in the trial of a 73-year-old charged with sexually abusing his children has been told they can return a majority verdict.

The direction from the trial judge comes during the jury members' second day of deliberations at the Central Criminal Court.

After nine hours in their jury room, the eight men and four women came back to court and said they had failed to reach a verdict on any of the 96 counts before them.

They also had a query over the location of one of the charges.

After addressing that, Mr Justice George Bermingham told the jury members they could return a majority verdict on the counts when they resumed their deliberations.

That is a majority of 10-2 or 11-1 for either guilty or not guilty.

The accused man denies raping two of his daughters and sexually assaulting his son between 1997 and 2002.