Man convicted of attempted rape and sexual assaults on six young men

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

A man was convicted at the Central Criminal Court of attempted anal rape and sexually assaulting six young men. The jury returned guilty verdicts on all nine counts on 22 December 2023.

He had pleaded not guilty to one count of attempted anal rape and eight counts of sexual assault. The charges related to dates between March 1991 and November 1997 at locations in Dublin. Mr Justice Alexander Owens presided over the trial.

The ten jurors reached their verdicts after more than seven and a half hours of deliberation. The proceedings were reported on 22 December 2023.

Five complainants said they woke to find the man performing sexual acts on them without their consent. One also said he attempted to rape him anally. The remaining complainant’s allegation concerned an act of masturbation in a pub toilet.

The man initially denied sexual contact with any of the complainants. He later acknowledged contact with three, which he said was consensual, and denied wrongdoing. He told the court he had initially lied because of shame and panic. Defence counsel also asked the jury to consider inconsistencies in the complainants’ evidence.

The judge directed the preparation of victim impact statements and continued the man’s bail pending sentencing. RTÉ reported that sentencing was scheduled for 4 March, without specifying a year.