A Dublin man has been acquitted by direction of the trial judge of committing an act of “gross indecency” with his nephew over 30 years ago.
The accused man, who cannot be identified for legal reasons, had pleaded not guilty to gross indecency at his home between June and September 1978. His nephew was aged between 15 and 16 at the time.
Following a morning of legal argument at the Central Criminal Court yesterday, the second day of the trial, Ms Justice Iseult O’Malley told the jury of three women and nine men that she was directing it to return a verdict of not guilty.
Ms Justice O’Malley said this was due to a number of factors, including the age of the case and lack of corroboration, which made the allegations hard to defend, as well as the archaic provisions of the law under which the man had been charged.