Jury finds elderly man guilty of nine more child abuse charges

A 73-year-old man faces life in prison after being being convicted of raping his two daughters and sexually abusing his son.

A jury in the Central Criminal Court found him guilty of the majority of the 113 charges against him on Thursday and returned another nine convictions today.

They acquitted him of two counts of sexual assault and failed to agree on verdicts for another seven charges. Mr Justice George Birmingham had previously ordered them to return not guilty verdicts on a further 17 counts.

The Dublin man had pleaded not guilty to sexually assaulting, raping and orally raping two daughters between the ages of five and eleven and sexually assaulting his son from the age of three to six at various locations from 1997 to 2002.

The abuse happened in locations around the country including shopping centre toilets and on the DART.

Evidence was heard that after the HSE took one of the girls into a care home, the accused would get her to run away so he could rape her.

Following his conviction, the court heard from Detective Garda Deirdre Walsh that the man has previous convictions for indecent assault.

The jury of eight men and four women took over thirteen hours to reach their verdicts after a seven-week trial.

Mr Justice Birmingham thanked them for their “outstanding commitment” to the case and said their service was “a splendid example of citizenship at its best.”

He ordered the man be placed on the sex offender's register and remanded him in custody until sentencing in October.