A 69-year-old Co. Galway pensioner, who was charged with sexually abusing two of his neighbour's children in the 1980s, was acquitted last Friday afternoon by a jury of all charges following a four-day trial at Galway Circuit Criminal Court.

The jury of five women and seven men began their deliberations after evidence in the trial finished on Thursday afternoon, but when they failed to reach either a unanimous or majority verdict by 8pm, Judge Raymond Groarke sent them to a hotel in the city for the night.

The jury recommenced its deliberations at 10.30am on Friday morning and at 2.30pm returned a "not guilty" verdict in respect of all charges.

The accused, who may not be named for legal reasons, had denied 27 charges of indecently assaulting a ten-year-old girl on 25 occasions and her nine-year-old sister on two occasions over an 18-month period from April 1987 to June 1989.

The girls and their mother began crying in the courtroom as the 'not guilty' verdicts were read out. They were comforted by other family members and their many friends and neighbours who had sat through the four-day trial with them.

The two alleged victims, who are now aged 31 and 30 had given evidence on the first day of the trial on Tuesday. The older girl said she had been sexually assaulted by the accused in her own home, in the man's home and on several occasions when he took her for spins in his car.

She said the abuse first started in early 1987 and that it went on for 18 months, mostly in the man's car, until she finally told him she would tell her parents.

The younger sister, who is now 30, told the jury the accused brought her to a swimming lesson when she was nine years old in July 1987, and indecently assaulted her in his car on the way to and from the lesson.

The accused took the stand on the second day of the trial and claimed the girls had made up the abuse allegations because they blamed him for the break-up of their parents' marriage.

Discharging the accused, Judge Raymond Groarke thanked the members of the jury for their diligence in reaching their verdict and he excused them from jury service for the next ten years.

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