Convicted rapist Stephen 'Rossi' Walsh has been found guilty at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court of simulating sex on a seven-year-old girl more than 20 years ago.
Walsh (aged 63), who is currently serving a 10-year sentence for raping a nine-year-old-girl in the early 1990s, was found guilty by the jury following just more than three hours deliberation on two charges of indecent assault against the child on dates between May and September 1988.
Walsh, formerly of Belgrave Road, Rathgar, but who gave his address as “The Irish Republic”, represented himself throughout the three-day trial and had pleas of not guilty entered on his behalf after he refused to take part in the arraignment process while the jury was being sworn in.
Judge Patrick McCartan thanked the jury of eight men and four women for their attention to the case and remanded Walsh in custody until his sentence date on November 18.
Walsh indicated that he intended to appeal the conviction as soon as possible.
The now 29-year-old victim told Ms Tara Burns BL, prosecuting, that on two occasions when she visited Walsh’s home of the time he made her lie face down on a bed with a pillow under her stomach. She said the accused lay on top of her and moved “as if he was having sex” and she heard moaning noises.
The woman said she had seen Walsh again several years ago while visiting a friend. She said they had walked past each other at the gates of a flat complex and when she went inside her friend’s house she vomited.
The victim was cross examined by Walsh who asked her why it had taken her so long to come forward. She replied: “Because I was ashamed, you hurt me and when you tell people you have to deal with it.” She later said: “I was ashamed. I felt dirty and ashamed.”
“You know, you were there. You don’t know how upsetting it is, you don’t know how this has effected my life and you can stand there and question me,” she told Walsh, “You say you want your rights, what about the rights of a child.”
The woman described telling her mother of her allegations: “The first thing she said was: ‘I feel I have let you down as a parent’; that’s why I did not tell her.” She said she went to one session of counselling but left feeling horrible.
Walsh asked her if she was in a position to verify any of her allegations. She replied: “Obviously not, it was just you and me there.”
During his defence Walsh challenging the procedures surrounding his detention and charge. He also complained of adverse pre-trial publicity.
In his closing speech, Walsh said he had been stigmatised and had no one he could call to give evidence on his behalf.
“I have no one I can go up to and say can you help me, because no one wants to know someone in my position and rightly so,” He said. “I can not prove where I was, I can not prove anything.”
Walsh drew the jurors attention to “a miscarriage of justice” in which a man was convicted of the sexual assault of a child but she later came forward and admitted she had made up the allegations. He also highlighted a case of a garda who made a “malicious” assault complaint against a taxi driver.
He told the jury that they may not like him or the way he looks but he asked them to judge him only on the facts and evidence.
“I am saying to you that these allegations are untrue. They are fraudulent,” he said.
