A Co Tipperary teacher has been found not guilty at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court of sexually abusing two mentally handicapped youths at a special school in Limerick.
The jury returned its unanimous verdict after deliberating for nearly three hours on day-14 of the trial.
The 48-year-old married father-of-three had pleaded not guilty to a total of four charges of sexual assault on the two boys in Limerick, Clare and in his own home on dates between September 9th, 1994 and March 31st, 1997.
Two of the charges were withdrawn from the jury before it began its deliberations. Judge Yvonne Murphy thanked the members for their work on the lengthy trial and excused them from any further service for five years.
The man broke down in tears as the not guilty verdicts were read out to the court.
After the trial, his solicitor, Mr John Devane, said he was delighted to see justice done.
He said: "It's absolutely great. It's been going on now for five years and the man's wife and family have been left devastated by it. A lot of people have been greatly affected by it.
"The defence can't believe that this case was brought to trial. The children gave suggestable answers to suggestable questions but they did not have trained professionals to interview mentally handicapped children.
"There are now tonnes of questions still to be answered and I will be calling for an inquiry into the affair and the answers will have to be given in a public forum. There has been hundreds of thousands of pounds and euros put into an investigation that went nowhere.
"I'm pointing the finger at the State authorities. This was a travesty of justice waiting to happen. It has ruined the last five years of the man's life and he will spend the next five years putting it back together."
During the course of the trial the court heard that over 100 complaints of sexual abuse against children were made at the special school. One student made 31 allegations, while a second made 17.
Mr Devane himself told the court that an allegation of rape was made against him when it emerged that he was defending the accused.