Dublin man jailed for sexually abusing two girls

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

A Dublin man received an eight-year sentence for sexually abusing two girls, with the final 12 months suspended by Judge Martina Baxter. The proceedings were reported on 27 July 2018.

He had pleaded not guilty to 33 charges. After a trial at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court in February 2018, a jury convicted him of 24 counts of sexually assaulting one girl and one count of sexually assaulting her younger sister. He was acquitted of eight charges by direction of the trial judge.

The trial heard that the abuse took place while the children were staying at their grandmother’s home. The first girl was assaulted while asleep between July 2000 and July 2002, when she was six or seven. The report said the assaults on her younger sister took place from 2005 to 2010, diminishing as she got older and avoided the man; she was six or seven when first assaulted.

Judge Baxter said an aggravating factor was that the abuse had divided a once close family. She noted that the jury had rejected the “lies” told by the man’s partner and her mother during the trial to discredit the victims’ evidence about staying at the house.

Defence counsel Paul Carroll SC said the man had no previous convictions and did not accept the jury’s verdict. He said his client had led a productive life, working and rearing a family.