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Jury to resume deliberations in historical Kerry child sex abuse case

Jun 16, 2026 08:01
By radiokerrynews
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Jury to resume deliberations in historical Kerry child sex abuse case

The jury in a historical child sex abuse trial at Tralee Circuit Court will resume deliberations this morning.

The case concerns six charges of indecent assault, which are alleged to have occurred in Kerry in the 1970s and 1980s.

The defendant vehemently denies the charges and alleges that the complainant is motivated by money.

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Neither the defendant nor the complainant can be named in order to protect their anonymity.

The defendant is accused of five counts of indecent assault of a girl aged under 15, and one count of indecently assaulting the same girl when she was aged 16 or 17.

Indecent assault was renamed sexual assault in 1990.

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As the offences are alleged to have occurred before then, the older term applies.

The defendant strenuously denies the charges.

The complainant denies his allegation that that she is motivated by money.

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As part of his charge to the jury, Judge Alec Gabbett stressed the difficulties of historical cases such as this, as the long intervening period makes the charges harder to defend.

On Friday afternoon, after less than an hour of deliberations, the jury asked to have the audio recordings of the defendant's testimony and that of a defence witness replayed.

These are to be played to the jury of eight women and three men this morning, in the presence of the trial judge and counsel for both the DPP and the defendant.

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