4 days ago
Jury fail to reach verdict in case of farmer charged with sexually assaulting girl (14)
The man, who cannot be named for legal reasons, was 72 at the time of the alleged assaults.
A jury failed to reach a verdict after deliberating for three hours and two minutes in the trial of a 76-year-old Co Leitrim farmer accused of two counts of sexually assaulting a teenage girl in his home in 2021.
The man, who cannot be named for legal reasons, was 72 at the time of the alleged assaults. He pleaded not guilty to two counts of sexually assaulting the teenage girl, aged 14 at the time, in both the kitchen and sitting room of his home in rural Co Leitrim on August 9th 2021.
The trial began before Judge John Alymer at Carrick-on-Shannon Circuit Court with a jury of eight men and four women.
Mr Edward Sweetman BL with Ms Niamh McGovern, State Solicitor, prosecuted, while Mr Colm Smyth SC, with Mr Eoin McGovern BL instructed by Mr Gerard McGovern, solicitor, appeared for the accused.
Mr Sweetman outlined that the complainant was 14 at the time of the alleged assault and she was interviewed by specialist gardaí when she was fifteen.
The trail took place at Carrick-on-Shannon courthouse
News in 90 Seconds - August 14th
The accused was a married man with children. The jury heard three days of evidence in the trial.
Detective Garda Tom Tully of Carrick-on-Shannon Garda Station told the court he carried out a specialist interview with the alleged victim and a colleague of his, Gda Mary Tighe was present.
The recorded interview took place on November 29 2021 and was played to the jury.
She said the accused was 'being weird' and she said he winked at her. She said that around 1pm she was outside and the accused asked her to come up his house for tea.
The complainant told gardaí she went in and sat down in the sitting room. The accused was leaning against the fire. She said he put his hand out and she could not remember what he said. She said she went to 'high five' his hand and said he pulled her up.
He was hugging her and she could feel him grabbing her. She said she was trying to push him off. He was hugging and grabbing her and the accused asked if she was 'okay with this'. He said 'will you promise not to tell Mam.'
She said his wife then rang at 1:26pm and she pretended to text her mother and told the accused her mother was texting and that she was up at their house.
The girl said that when she was going out the door of the accused's house, he grabbed her again and said 'we'll finish this the next time'.
She said the accused gave her and her brother a lift home as it was raining. She said she didn't want a lift and sat in the back seat.
When asked by Dt Gda Tully about the hugging and grabbing, she said in the incident in the sitting room, he took her hand and pulled her up and pulled her in on top of him. She said she was like a statue and one of his hands was on her bum and another on her breast. She said he was not letting go.
The complainant said she went home and phoned her friend. Her friend said to tell her mother and she said she wasn't going to. She said her friend made her tell her mother. She said her friend's mother typed a text message to the accused on the girl's phone which read, 'if you ever do what you did to me this morning I'll go to the guards'.
In cross-examination, Mr Smyth asked the witness if she turned up the following morning (August 10) to babysit and she replied she had. She said the families were quite close.
He put it to her that the accused was on a telephone call to his vet at 1:19pm that day in his farmyard. He said that there was a very tight short timeline for the accused to get to the house where the alleged assault was taking place, with his wife calling him at 1:26pm.
Mr Smyth said that the man telephoned her father three times and that he was very upset and worried after receiving the text message.
He rang three times and her father called him back the following day and the phonecall was recorded by her father. The accused denied anything happened 'in any shape or form'.
Mr Smyth said that his client's recollection of their conversation in the house was that she enquired about a young man she was going out with at the time.
The complainant said she didn't remember that conversation. When asked the alleged victim said she was 'frozen'. She said she would have walked past him but she couldn't move.
He asked her about the text message that was sent to the accused at half two that day (August 9) asking her if she thought it was fairly threatening and she replied no. He said it did not seem to be coming from someone who was frozen and terrified and witness replied that it was after the alleged assault.
He put it to her that the accused did not assault her in the timeline set out as he didn't have the time. 'Yes, he did, he did do it,' replied the alleged victim.
The mother of the alleged victim gave evidence to the jury. She said she was on her lunchbreak from work and she met her daughter in their kitchen.
She was visibly shaking and said she was not sure if she should tell her or not, but her friend said if she didn't, she would tell her.
Her mother asked her what was wrong. She replied that she was after being groped by the accused. She said she was in shock and tried to ask her what happened.
She said her daughter said the accused put his arms around her and tried to hold on and that he touched her. She said her daughter told her she was getting up to give the accused a high five and he pulled her towards her in a grope and held tight. One hand of his was one her bum and one was on her breast, she said.
Her daughter said it lasted a minute or two and then the accused's phone rang and it was his wife. She said her daughter pretended to message her. When asked by Mr Sweetman what her reaction was, she replied that she 'nearly dropped'.
She said she thought 'this is not happening to me'.
She said she could remember her daughter shaking and said not to tell her father. The witness said she texted her husband to call her.
The woman went back to work and dropped her daughter to her friend's house.
When asked if they had any contact with the accused, she replied that her husband had a couple of missed calls and rang back the next day.
The conversation with her husband and the accused was recorded and she was there.
The accused said he got a serious text message and what were they going to do about it. He said absolutely nothing had happened. A short time after the phonecall, they met the accused as planned.
The mother said that the accused had sexually assaulted her daughter. She said that none of them wanted to be there and everyone was very upset.
She said the accused said to her to look into his eyes and said he never touched her.
The woman said she replied she (daughter) is only 14 years of age and they had nothing to do but go to the gardaí. She said they didn't want to but they felt they had no choice.
She said everyone was very upset including the accused.
They then went to the garda station and the gardaí took their statements. When asked by Mr Sweetman how her daughter was after the alleged incident, she replied that she was very shaken up, very embarrassed and very traumatised.
Mr Smyth said that after the meeting the accused went to complain to gardaí about the text message at 7pm that evening.
Mr Sweetman in his closing speech to the jury said there was a conflict between whose idea it was to go up to the house for tea. He said the accused said it was the complainant's idea to have tea.
Mr Sweetman said that something 'jars' in the reality of the human experience of a child inviting herself to tea. He said the complainant doesn't drink tea and said there was a 'conflict' in the evidence. He said that one question the jury had to consider was whether there was time for this to happen.
He said the timeline was 'central'. He said the complainant said it happened in one or two minutes.
He told the jury the other evidence they should give particular regard to is that the complainant almost immediately tells her mother, who said she was visibly upset.
Mr Sweetman told the jury that nothing could remove the compelling account given by the complainant.
He said they have to decide whether to accept the accused's account of what happened or if they are convinced by the complainant's beyond reasonable doubt. He asked them to convict on both allegations.
Mr Smyth told the jury that their task was a very difficult one in that there were two people involved, the complainant who was on the brink of early life and the accused, a semi-retired farmer.
He said he was a man that raised his family and had been married a long time. He had no previous convictions and had led a blameless life. He said a sexual assault case is very difficult as it is one word against another.
He said the accused man was very worried and very concerned after receiving the text message and asked the jury if those are the actions of a man who committed a serious offence. He told the jury they had to decide whether it was a case that was proven beyond reasonable doubt.
After deliberating for three hours and two minutes, the jury foreman told Judge Aylmer that they were deadlocked and could not reach an agreement on each count.
Judge Aylmer thanked the jury and excused them from jury service for five years. The Director of Public Prosecutions will now decide if there is to be a re-trial in the matter..
