JUSTICE FRANK O’Donnell of the Circuit Criminal Court
directed that a former Dublin priest be found not guilty on two charges
in his trial for child rape and sex abuse.
The judge also expressed
frustration at daily delays in the trial.
One of the charges
dropped alleged buggery by the defendant in an open area near where the
complainant lived and the second alleged indecent assault on the same
occasion.
The defendant continues to face 14 charges, five of
buggery and nine of indecent assault, on a then altar boy between June
1st, 1979, and June 30th, 1983. The boy was aged between seven and 11
over the period.
The third day of the trial, was marked
by lengthy legal argument with the jury requested to withdraw twice,
before being summoned a third time shortly before 1pm to be told
proceedings were adjourned until 10.30am on Monday.
The jury had to
withdraw twice on Thursday and once on Wednesday as counsel made
submissions/applications.
Expressing his frustration at this,
before announcing the adjournment, Justice O’Donnell described
it as “a crazy set-up”.
The case had been “pending for a long, long
time,” he said, and also referred to the “waste of time and of money”
involved.
“I really feel that in this particular case there have been
stoppages which should have been avoided,” he said.
The withdrawn
charges alleged buggery and indecent assault on February 10th, 1980, the
complainant’s eighth birthday.
In evidence to the court the complainant
said the alleged incident occurred when he was “nine or 10, definitely
not eight”. He agreed he had said in statements to gardaí in 1998 and
1999 that it occurred in 1980.
Evidence presented by David Keane,
defending, was that the defendant attended at two baptisms on the 1980
date.
The complainant’s father told the court yesterday that his son had
been baptised at the family home by the defendant at 4pm that day and
that he took part in celebrations until 10pm-10.30pm that night.
Another
defence witness who was a head nun between 1978 and 1982 at a convent
in the parish where the defendant was a curate, said his
responsibilities included saying the 7.30am Mass at an oratory in the
convent.
“There were no altar servers” at that Mass, she said.
She
“couldn’t say for definite” the defendant said all weekday Masses
there.
SIC: IT/IE