County Derry man pleads guilty to historical sexual abuse charges

A 60-year-old man has pleaded guilty on the morning of his trial to sexually assaulting two, then aged teenage, men almost 40 years ago.

The County Derry abuser, who cannot be named for legal reasons, was due to go on trial at Derry Crown Court charged with committing the offences on dates between July 1985 and June 1992.

He'd originally pleaded not guilty to indecently assaulting his two victims and his trial, before a jury, was scheduled to have lasted until Wednesday of next week.

However following an application by his defence barrister, the defendant was re-arraigned on the charges and pleaded guilty to both of them. He further pleaded guilty to a similar third charge which was added to the bill of indictment this morning.

Prosecution barrister Barry McGrory KC said the guilty pleas were acceptable to the prosecution and to the victims. 

Following the defendant's guilty pleas, Judge Neil Rafferty KC then addressed the men who had made the allegations against the defendant.

"You are now no longer complainants, you are victims. You now have the gold standard of vindication because this defendant has pleaded guilty and because you had the strength and perseverance to continue with this case", he said.

Members of the defendant's family wept as Judge Rafferty fixed the plea and sentence hearing for July 30. 

He also ordered a pre-sentence report to be ready by July 5 and he said any victim impact statements, which were optional, should be ready by July 19.

The defendant was then released on continuing bail until he's sentenced.