Man convicted of rape and sexual assault at Central Criminal Court

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

A jury convicted a 41-year-old man of raping and sexually assaulting a teenage girl in a Dublin suburb on 21 August 2017. It acquitted him of false imprisonment.

The man, who cannot be named for legal reasons, had pleaded not guilty to all three charges at the Central Criminal Court. The proceedings were reported on 24 September 2021.

The unanimous verdicts came on the ninth day of the trial after three hours and 29 minutes of jury deliberations. Justice Paul McDermott remanded the man in custody until his sentencing date of 29 November 2021 and ordered a victim impact statement and a probation report.

The complainant, who was 19 when she gave evidence by video link, said she had left home after being grounded and was alone in her local town when the man approached her. She said he offered her a safe place to stay and that she went to his apartment.

She told the jury that she fell asleep fully clothed on a bed and awoke to find the man on top of her. She said he touched her breasts, ignored her attempts to stop him and raped her.

The complainant said she went to a garda station after meeting a friend at a train station. She said she told a teacher about the rape the following November, and her parents and gardaí were alerted.