Convicted brother’s sentence hearing delayed after he fails to appear

This report is a localnews.ie summary based on public court reporting and records; sources are listed below.

A 35-year-old man known in court as Accused C, who was convicted of sexually abusing his sisters and deaf relative, was absent when his sentence hearing was due to proceed, the Central Criminal Court was told. The hearing could not go ahead in his absence after he broke his bail conditions.

The jury found him guilty of 10 counts, including sexual assault of Complainant 2 on a date between 2005 and 2006 and two rapes of her on dates between 2015 and 2018. His other convictions included rape, anal rape and sexual assault charges relating to the deaf complainant, and anal rape of Complainant 3. He was one of four family members convicted in the trial.

The proceedings lasted 131 days, the longest criminal trial in the State’s history. A warrant had been issued after Accused C failed to appear for the remainder of the verdicts. The court heard gardaí had no information about his whereabouts. Pleas in mitigation for the three men were scheduled for a further sentence hearing on October 19th; psychological reports for two of them were not expected until October.