Judge to sentence Clayton’s former assistant

It took a jury at the Circuit Criminal Court in Dublin more than five hours to return the unanimous guilty verdict on each individual charge.

Despite not giving any defence during the trial, lawyers for 48-year-old Hawkins said she still maintains her innocence. She was released on bail until sentencing.

During the three-and-a-half week trial Clayton said the mother-of-two had gained his “absolute trust” over the 17 years she worked for him.

She was signatory on two of his bank accounts from which she wrote 181 cheques to deposit in her own account, a joint account with her then husband John Hawkins and a credit card account.

Her lawyers denied the defendant had taken the money between 2004 and 2008, instead arguing Hawkins sometimes used her own credit card to purchase items for his benefit to keep his card in credit.

The deception emerged in 2008 when Hawkins confessed to booking up to €15,000 worth of flights on his account to visit her children in the US and London.

The bassist revealed she claimed to be suicidal and that he was so concerned for her welfare he found her a therapist.

But by then Hawkins had spent thousands more euro on thoroughbred horses, exotic holidays and in designer boutiques in New York, such as Roberto Cavalli.

Elsewhere, investigations revealed a Volkswagen Golf was purchased for her son Joe, while the rock star’s money paid for fashion and film courses for her children.

Clayton originally employed Hawkins, of Lower Rathmines Road in Dublin, as a housekeeper in 1992 and her then husband as a driver and occasional chef.

But her duties evolved from looking after the house and preparing meals at Clayton’s Danesmoate mansion in Rathfarnham, South Dublin, to eventually looking after his books.

She was dismissed in 2009 on a salary of €48,000 a year.