Andrew Carey | [email protected]
A LIMERICK mother has been cleared of putting her daughter in danger of sexual abuse by her partner in one of the first prosecutions of its kind in the country.
The 52 year-old man who was described in court as effectively the girl’s stepfather was convicted of three counts of sexual assaulting the teenager at the family home in Limerick city from May 2008 to December 2009.
During the trial at Limerick Circuit Court the victim claimed her mother knew she was being sexually abused but did nothing about it.
The victim said the abuse started around the time of her fourteenth birthday.
After six hours of deliberations the jury returned a unanimous guilty verdict on three of the 20 sexual assault charges.
There were loud cheers and clapping from the public gallery when the 41-year-old mother was cleared of the endangerment charge which she had contested.
Describing the outburst as unacceptable, Judge Carroll Moran said the court was not a theatre, although he acknowledged the high level of emotions in the case.
Outlining the case against the accused woman, Prosecuting Counsel John O’Sullivan said the legislation had only come into effect in 2006 and the essence of the case was that she knew the abuse was taking place but failed to do anything about it and had therefore acted intentionally or recklessly.
The victim, who is now aged 19, claimed her stepfather had sexually assaulted her while her mother sat in another chair in the same room.
Under cross examination the teenager agreed that after leaving the home of her mother and partner in 2009, she moved in with her biological father but subsequently moved out having made an allegation of a sexual nature against him.
As the victim was a minor at the time of the assaults, Judge Moran ordered that the 52-year-old man’s name be added to the Register of Sex Offenders and remanded him on bail for sentencing on February 21
