A former hypnotist has told a court he is no longer in practice because two women alleged he had sexually assaulted them after a stage show at a hotel in 1997.
In a unanimous verdict a jury at Trim Circuit Court found the man not guilty yesterday.
Afterwards he said he was now working full-time in another profession that does not use hypnosis.
The 37-year-old man told the jury he had been introduced to hypnosis while working in a hospital. He also used it in counselling, in which he has a diploma.
He had used hypnosis for entertainment in hundreds of shows, but the charges arising out of the show in 1997 were the first ever made against him, he said. On the night the women were two of eight volunteers from the audience who needed to be de-hypnotised afterwards.
The eight had responded to a post-hypnotic suggestion towards the end of the show that they were missing body parts. He said this was done to shock the audience after they were told the show was over.
The women told an earlier court they believed their breasts were missing and alleged that the man had touched their breasts without their consent after they asked him to help them find them. One of the women said she had gone out through a fire exit while searching for her breasts.
The man agreed in cross-examination by Mr Jonathan Kilfeather, for the State, that he was alone with each of the women for a time after the show but said he did not in any way assault, fondle or sexually assault either of them.
He said most people in Ireland would respond to being told forcefully by him that their body parts were not missing, but he had to put both women into the original trance to undo the suggestion. This had been done as they stood against a wall in a corridor of the hotel in the residents' area.
In his charge to the jury, Judge Raymond Groarke said an allegation of sexual assault was one of the easiest to make and one of the most difficult to disprove and such assaults generally did not take place in public. He said they should be slow to convict the man in the absence of corroborative evidence.
Judge Groarke said there was no corroborative evidence tending to implicate the accused man and while it was dangerous to convict on the evidence of the complainants only, the jury was entitled to convict if so convinced.
The jury returned unanimous verdicts of not guilty on each of the two charges.
Speaking afterwards, the former hypnotist said he was relieved beyond belief and it had been a time of considerable trauma. He said it had brought devastation on his family and colleagues and affected just about every part of his life.
He thanked Dr Ivor Browne, who gave evidence as a medical witness for the defence and who told the court it was possible to suggest recollections or experiences that had never happened to people under hypnosis.