A 63-YEAR-OLD Kilkenny man has been convicted of numerous counts of sexual assault on children as young as five.
Edwin Curry, Kells Road, Kilkenny, appeared before Kilkenny Circuit Court charged with 189 counts of indecent assault on nine young girls, aged between five and 15 years, over a 21-year period.
Curry, who gave evidence at the eight-day trial, was convicted yesterday of indecent assault on five of the girls.
He pleaded guilty to indecent assault on four others.
The court heard Curry had lured the girls into a shed behind his parents’ house using sweets, kittens and money, and that he had “repeatedly indecently assaulted” them on a daily and weekly basis in the shed and in his parents’ house.
Evidence was given that Curry had taken photographs of two of the girls naked and that he had touched the girls and had sexual intercourse with and performed oral sex on one of the girls.
Curry denied that he had intercourse with any of the girls.
His victims told the court how Curry would lift them up to reach money he had placed in the beams of the shed and how he lifted them onto a swing in the shed and indecently touched them in the process.
The court also heard Curry made the girls “crawl up the stairs” on their hands and knees to his bedroom so they wouldn’t be seen.
Patrick Treacy, prosecuting barrister, said Curry had a “calculated and planned system in place to repeatedly indecently assault children” on dates between 1964 and 1985.
Curry was interviewed by gardaí in 2005 after complaints were received.
He admitted to the gardaí that he had assaulted a number of girls and said that it had all ended by 1986.
Curry denied having a sexual relationship with one of the complainants and denied she was ever in the shed.
He told the court he felt the complainants were conspiring against him.
Seven of the women gave detailed evidence of the assaults before a jury of seven women and five men.
One woman told how Curry had locked her into the shed when Curry was called into the house by his father.
She also said Curry had pornographic magazines in a desk in the shed.
Giving evidence, Curry admitted he had sexually assaulted four of the five complainants but said that he had assaulted three of them on dates not on the indictment.
The jury were handed notes written by the accused in which he talked of having sex with one of the complainants.
The jury returned a unanimous verdict in relation to all counts against Curry after deliberating for one hour and 25 minutes.
Judge Olive Buttimer remanded Curry in custody to the next sitting of Kilkenny Circuit Court and directed that victim impact statements be prepared on behalf of the nine complainants.
Judge Buttimer ordered that a psychiatric assessment and a probation report be carried out on Curry.