Wicklow businessman convicted of raping schoolgirl

A Wicklow businessman has been convicted at the Central Criminal Court of raping and indecently assaulting a schoolgirl 30 years ago.

The 58-year-old accused had pleaded not guilty to 18 rape charges and 19 indecent assault charges from January 1979 to June 1983 at various Wicklow locations when the girl was aged between 12 and 17-years-old.

The jury of six men and six women acquitted the man of one rape charge, returned a majority 11-1 guilty verdict on another rape charge and unanimously convicted him on the remaining charges of rape and indecent assault on day five of the trial.

The jury took just more than five hours and 40 minutes to return its verdict.

Mr Justice Patrick McCarthy thanked the jury members for their care and attention to the case, exempted them from further civic duty for 10 years and ordered a victim impact statement for the sentence date early next year.

Mr Justice McCarthy refused the man bail and remanded him in custody pending sentence after hearing submissions from prosecution and defence.

Ms Mary Rose Gearty SC, defending (with Ms Siobhán Ní Chúlacháin BL), earlier submitted that her client had been on bail for 13 years with no difficulty to gardaí but that he had not taken the opportunity tell one of his adult children about the trial.

Ms Gearty said her client had told his father and another grown-up child about the criminal proceedings against him for the first time yesterday and wished to tell his second child in person.

Mr Tom O’Connell SC, prosecuting (Ms Monica Lawlor BL), submitted in response that the reason the trial had been delayed for 13 years was because the man had brought judicial review proceedings through the Supreme Court.

Mr Justice McCarthy said the fact the man contested the case for so long and showed no remorse would not increase the sentence, but he felt he could not release him on bail since his children were now adults and the charges he fought were so serious.