A 52-YEAR-OLD man has been found guilty at the Central Criminal Court of the systematic sexual abuse of his son over a period of three years.
The man, who cannot be named in order to protect the identity of his victim, was found guilty of 11 charges of anal rape, 12 charges of oral rape, and 24 charges of sexual assault of the boy on dates between April 11th, 2001 and June 23rd, 2004. The offences occurred while the child was aged between 12 and 15 years old.
It was day nine of the trial, and the jury had been deliberating for four hours and 24 minutes.
A charge of wilful neglect or ill-treatment of the child was earlier withdrawn by the trial judge.
Mr Justice Barry White thanked the jury of seven men and five women and excused them from jury service for life. Mr Justice White said this was a particularly distasteful case, and noted that while judges and lawyers can become case hardened, members of the public may only come across such a case once in a lifetime.
After the defence said they wished to consider their position in relation to reports, Mr Justice White remanded the man in custody and listed the case for mention this morning, when a sentence date will be set.
The now 20-year-old complainant told Aileen Donnelly, prosecuting, that his father sexually abused him for the first time in the room he shared with his brothers when he was 12 or 13 years old. He said he was told not to tell anyone and the abuse continued “a couple of times a week”.
He told Ms Donnelly: “It was wrong, he was my father like,” when she asked him what his attitude to the abuse was.
He said he left home in 2004, but the following year asked his father to meet up with him.
He told Ms Donnelly “It was not all bad,” and said: “I was hoping he would apologise, I was hoping he was sorry.” He told Ms Donnelly: “Even though he did all those things, he was still my father.”
When asked by defence counsel David Goldberg whether he hated his father, he said: “Yes, now I do.”
Mr Goldberg asked the complainant how his situation could have been worse if he had made a complaint outside of his home at the time about the abuse he was allegedly suffering. He replied: “I could be sent home and he would know I had complained.”
During defence evidence the accused denied the allegations.
He told Mr Goldberg: “I never sexually abused my son, never.” He told Delia Flynn, prosecuting, during cross-examination that his son may have made the allegations as “revenge” and recalled his son telling him “his head was all over the place”. “What I am being accused of you would not do to an animal,” the man said.