A former leading GAA official in the west of Ireland was found not guilty of two counts of indecent assault on his young niece at a trial at Galway Circuit Court yesterday. It took the jury of eight men and four women over three hours to reach a verdict in the trial of the married 59-year-old father of four, who wept after the verdict was announced last night.
The defendant, who cannot be named for legal reasons, denied both charges of committing indecent assault on dates unknown between February 28th, 1983, and October 31st, 1996.
His alleged victim, who is now aged 20, told Judge Frank O'Donnell and the jury she believed the two assaults occurred around the summer of 1984, when she was aged seven.
She said both assaults took place in the same week after he invited her to look at some kittens in a loft on his farm, where she was a regular visitor.
The complainant agreed she did not tell anyone until she confided in her brother about five years later.
The defendant recalled she and her brother were regular visitors to his farm as children, but said: "Those things never happened, those allegations are false. I have no recollection of these incidents. I was dumbfounded, I was shaken."
He recalled being summoned to Mill Street Garda station in May 1996. "I was hoping at the time that the floor would open and swallow me up after being accused of such a thing."
The defendant said the only reason he could think of for his niece to make such allegations was because there had been a family dispute with her father, his brother, when his parents left their land to him (defendant) in their wills.
Mr Patrick MacEntee SC, defending, said the allegations were not brought to his client's attention until 1996. He asked why he would take such a risk in broad daylight with his wife and children just yards away from the shed.