By Isabel Hayes and Declan Brennan

A man has been acquitted of 21 counts of raping his wheelchair-bound step-daughter.

The man, who cannot be named for legal reasons, had pleaded not guilty at the Central Criminal Court to 48 counts of sexual assault and 21 counts of anally raping the girl between 2003 and 2013 when she was aged between eight and 18.

After deliberating for just over six hours a jury of five women and six men returned verdicts of not guilty on all 69 counts. The jury had earlier been told it could return a majority verdict.

Justice Patrick McCarthy directed that the man be released from the indictment.

In his closing speech Paul Greene SC, defending, said that there were inconsistencies in the evidence.

He said it was natural to feel sympathy for the complainant, given the physical challenges she had faced in life, but he urged the jury to approach the case “in a cold and dispassionate fashion”.

“It's on her evidence that this case stands or falls,” he said.

He noted the household was the subject of analysis by social services for a number of years but the complainant made no disclosures until late 2013 when she was in hospital for a prolonged period with a serious illness.

Mr Greene noted the disclosures started with the allegation of masturbation but “the horrific crime of anal rape wasn't mentioned”. He said this only came to light nine months after gardaí were first involved in the case, leading to the accused man being re-arrested and charged with fresh offences.

He said there was a “failure of specificity” in respect of the allegations made and “troublingly limited assistance” from the evidence of other family members.

The alleged victim told the jury the 44-year-old man began sexually abusing her by touching her private parts shortly after her First Holy Communion.

She said the sexual abuse progressed from touching to attempts to rape her vaginally. She said this did not succeed and he then regularly anally raped her from when she was aged 10 or 11.

The woman, now aged 23, alleges the man abused her at their family home in Dublin, where her mother and other family members also lived.

The accused's man and his wife separated in early 2013. The allegations initially came to light in late 2013 when the complainant confided in her aunt that the accused man had masturbated in front of her.

Closing the prosecution case Paul Burns SC, told the jury that the alleged victim remained “unshaken in her core testimony” throughout the trial, even when cross-examination by skilled defence counsel.

He said there was an “implied or expressed criticism” in the case that the complainant didn't give a full account of the sexual abuse when she first disclosed it.

Mr Burns submitted it was not an easy thing to talk about and he referred to the complainant's evidence that she was embarrassed and ashamed.

If this was all a pack of lies or part of some conspiracy, then the easiest thing in the world would be to say it all at once.

Mr Burns noted it had also been implied that the victim was not telling the truth because she didn't tell social workers about the alleged abuse. The trial has heard social workers were involved in the family for a number of years on suspicion that the complainant was being neglected.

“She was a young child when this abuse started,” Mr Burns said. “She saw the accused as her father. He threatened to kill her if she told anyone.”

This abuse had become her normality. That was her life.

Mr Burns said there were no other witnesses in the case who saw anything happen, but he said this was the nature of such cases. “They are carried out in secret.”

He referred to evidence given by the complainant's siblings, who reported being locked out of the house at times when their mother was out, leaving the accused and the complainant alone inside. They said the blinds would be drawn during these times.

The siblings also told the court they often couldn't access the bathroom or bedroom when the man and their sister were alone inside.

He said the complainant gave a “true and credible account of the abuse she suffered at the hands of the accused, the man she regarded as her father”.