A FORMER SPORTS coach on trial for 266 counts of indecent and sexual assault will be sentenced next month after pleading guilty to 13 sample counts of indecent assault.
Judge Martin Nolan told the jury that it is “not unusual” for accused people to make “certain decisions” during a trial. He thanked the jurors for their service.The prosecution case had ended yesterday morning with evidence of the man’s interviews with gardaí in which he claimed one complainant was “tutored” by “other victims” so they could sue An Garda Síochána and that another complainant had fabricated his allegations.
Trial summary In his opening speech, Paul Greene SC, prosecuting, told jurors they would hear evidence that the five complainants came into contact with the accused man when they were boys and teenagers in various ways, including as a sports coach and a family friend. The second complainant, now aged 48, told the court that when he was aged around 12, the accused man started making “sexual innuendos” to him. He said the defendant then offered him money if he would let the man touch his penis.
The third complainant, now 52, gave evidence that he got into the man’s car one day after finishing his exams in June 1985 when he was around 14. The man drove to the edge of the town, then put his hand down the boy’s jeans and touched his penis.