A woman has been convicted by at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court jury of falsely claiming she had been raped and sexually abused by her father.
The jury found the 35-year-old woman guilty by 10-2 majority verdicts on two counts of making false statements at the Rathmines Women's Refuge on July 20th and July 24th, 2002. She was found not guilty on 11 further charges alleging she made false statements under section 12 of the Criminal Law Act to gardaí from May 15th, 2002, to July 31st, 2002.
The woman, who cannot be named for legal reasons, had denied during her eight-day trial that she made 13 false statements claiming her father raped and sexually abused her from the age of six and that he was the father of one of her children. DNA evidence given in the trial proved he was not the child's father.
The jury, which heard evidence that she had withdrawn her 13 alleged false statements in a 14th statement, returned its verdicts following some seven hours of deliberations and after spending one night in a hotel.
Judge Anthony Hunt remanded her in custody for sentencing later and directed the preparation of reports for that hearing.
Garda Dervilla Corcoran told Dominic McGinn, prosecuting, on the first day of the trial, that the woman had made similar allegations to another garda in 2001 but also withdrew them soon afterwards.
Garda Corcoran said that when she asked the woman why she had made the allegations, she replied that she "thought it might have been a cry for help". She said the woman claimed the abuse had started in her family home in a west Dublin suburb and continued in her own home when she moved to another west Dublin suburb in 2001.
Her statements, which were read out in court, contained very graphic descriptions of her father's alleged sexual abuse of her.
Garda Corcoran said an investigation into her allegations was launched and a file on her father was sent to the Director of Public Prosecutions.
He was arrested and denied the allegations, but when the DPP told gardaí they would be unable to prosecute the case, the woman made a 14th statement withdrawing all her allegations and stating they were untrue.