A Dublin man has been found guilty of aggravated sexual assault and assault causing harm to a woman in a house he burgled in the early hours of the morning.
Stephen Phelan (20), of Poddle Close, Kimmage, was convicted by a Central Criminal Court jury on both charges following five days of evidence.
Mr Justice Philip O'Sullivan remanded Phelan in custody for sentence on July 26th. The case will also be mentioned on July 7th to ensure all reports are ready for the sentence hearing.
The start of the hearing was delayed by almost an hour on day four after Phelan head-butted a prison officer when he was refused permission to sit by the courtroom door.
Phelan, who admitted breaking and entering the house to burgle it, told gardaí he did not recall much about the events of February 11th, 2003, at a house in Harold's Cross which involved forcing the woman and her two male house-mates to strip naked and for them to have sex with her.
Phelan said he had not been involved in what he described as the "sick shit".
He also denied being violent or threatening towards any of the three people in the house despite carrying a dumb-lock and a Stanley knife.
He said the events described in court by his woman victim and her two male house-mates might never have happened, and if they did "it wasn't me".
Phelan said he went into the house with another man with the intention of taking anything of value. They opened the front door with a "slip-lock" fashioned from a bottle of 7-Up. He said they did not intend to cause any harm to anybody.
The now 24-year-old victim told senior counsel Isobel Kennedy, prosecuting, on day two of the trial that she was woken up at around 8.13am on February 11th, 2003, to the sound of unfamiliar male voices in her house.
She opened the door of her bedroom to find a dark-haired man with a knife standing outside her door.
During the hour that followed, he made her strip naked, cut off her knickers when she refused to take them off, and cut her back and buttocks with a knife.
Phelan and his accomplice also forced the two men to strip naked, and made them attempt to have sex with her. When one of them refused, Phelan threatened to cut his testicles off.