A Roscommon man has been convicted of raping a babysitter more than two decades ago.
The 58-year-old man was found guilty by a jury at the Central Criminal Court of raping the now 36-year-old woman on a date in 1982 and on three charges of indecently assaulting her on dates between 1979 and 1984.
Mr Justice Kevin O'Higgins remanded him in custody and said he faces "a lengthy sentence". He also directed that he be placed on the register of sex offenders.
The jury returned its 11-1 majority verdicts on day five of the trial, having deliberated for more than four hours and after spending one night in a hotel.
Mr Justice O'Higgins thanked the jury for its care and attention to the case and exempted the members from further jury service for 10 years.
The man had pleaded not guilty at the start of his trial to one charge of raping the woman and 29 charges of indecent assault.
Mr Justice O'Higgins withdrew 26 of the charges from the jury at the end of the prosecution case.
The man cannot be named for legal reasons. He gave evidence in his own defence and said the allegations against him were untrue and claimed the offences never happened. "I never went near her," he said.
Det Sgt John Hynes told Vincent Heneghan, prosecuting, (with Anthony Sammon SC), that when interviewed on March 15th, 2005, after his arrest the man told gardaí he had nothing to be remorseful for when it was suggested "you could get it off your chest" by admitting the woman's claims.
"If I done all those things you have written down from her, I would be remorseful," he said.
The now 36-year-old woman told Mr Sammon she was sexually assaulted from the age of seven by the man who raped her when she was 11 and staying in his house after babysitting.
She said she was sleeping in his daughter's bed when she woke to find him rubbing her intimately and that he beckoned her to come into another room where he had a towel and Vaseline on the bed.
She told Mr Sammon that following the first rape, it happened several other times when she was babysitting.
She said that she had got sick after he had forced oral sex on her.
She also described numerous incidents where she alleged he would pull up beside her on the road and take her to isolated bogland and sexually assault her.
She rejected a suggestion by Martin Giblin SC, defending, (with Francis Comerford), that prior to her making the allegations to gardaí she bore a grudge against the man's daughter because she believed that she had called social services about the welfare of her child.
She told Mr Giblin she had not been visited by social services and that in fact it was she who went to them.
The woman also denied a suggestion by Mr Giblin that she resented an incident where the man's daughter offered to take her (complainant's) baby home from the pub one day because she "had had a few drinks".
She further denied that after she was allegedly reported to social services she approached the man's daughter in a local pub and said: "Don't you be talking about me."