Woman found not guilty of sexually abusing son
A Cork woman has been found not guilty of sexually abusing her son in 1994.
The trial at the Central Criminal Court, which had been conducted using a video link for the now 12-year-old boy to give evidence, collapsed after the youngster could not be cross-examined.
The defendant had denied three charges of sexually abusing him between April and September of 1994.
In evidence, the boy gave graphic details of how his mother allegedly assaulted him nightly when he was just six years old.
He said it began on the night after his sister's First Communion, when his mother came into his room and tried to have sex with him.
If he struggled, he said, his mother would hit him with a hurley.
However, when senior defence counsel, John Kelly, stood up to cross-examine the boy, he broke down in tears and said he couldn't continue.
Judge Yvonne Murphy said she had no option but to stop the trial and direct the jury to find the accused not guilty.
