A well-known Irish celebrity accused of engaging in sexual acts with a 16-year-old girl when he was 27 has been acquitted on all charges.
The man had pleaded not guilty to three counts of engaging in sexual acts with a child under the age of 17 at locations in Dublin on dates between August 2010 and December 2010.
The jury had been deliberating for more than five and a half hours since yesterday.
After the verdicts were delivered the man became emotional as he hugged his parents outside court.
At the opening of the trial last week prosecuting counsel Eilis Brennan told the jury the accused was charged with the offence of defilement of a child.
She explained that the term which she said was “a rather old-fashioned one” means performing certain sexual acts with a child under the age of 17.
She said the charge was brought under the Criminal Law Sexual Offences Act of 2006 which makes it an offence to perform such acts and was there to protect children.
The complainant told the court she had met the man at the Oxegen music festival in 2010 and that he passed his phone to her so she could enter her phone number.
She said they got to know each other in the following weeks by text message and at first she told him she was 18 but later “came clean” and revealed she was only 16.
She said the man told her he was 27 and she was too young. She thought he would not talk to her again and it would be the end of it.
However, she said the following day he sent her a text asking if she could keep a secret.
For full story see https://www.rte.ie/news/2023/1020/1411929-celebrity-trial/
