Published Friday, 03 February 2012
Udy Joshi was unanimously convicted on Friday. (© UTV)
The four men and eight women deliberated for just under four hours on Friday before returning with unanimous guilty verdicts against the 68-year-old at Belfast Crown Court.
However while prosecuting lawyer Kate McKay told the court there were concerns that Joshi was a risk of flight given that he is a US citizen, trial Judge Gemma Loughran allowed the convicted paedophile to return to his home in North Carolina after hearing how a £40,000 cash surety had been lodged with the court.
During the five day trial the jury heard how Joshi impressed the teenage fan with stories of how he played with and against the likes of former England captains Geoffrey Boycott and Tony Greig, before subjecting him to abuse.
At the time Joshi was a right-arm off-spinner for Sussex County but who came to Northern Ireland for the summer to play for a local club and to conduct training sessions with aspiring cricketers.
Giving evidence to the court Joshi's victim, who is now 45-years-old but who was a 13-year-old boy at the time, described how at first nothing untoward happened and that he even attended a test match between England and India at Edgebaston along with Joshi who got both him and his father into the team hotel.
"Graham Gooch and Geoffrey Boycott were most anxious to know how we'd gotten into the hotel and I asked them for their autographs," said the alleged victim.
He added that legendary batsman Boycott agreed to sign "but only if we bought drinks first".
The first alleged incident happened the night before Joshi was due to hold a training session and the then teenager ended up staying overnight in the same house as Joshi.
He told the jury how he had "no concern at all" when Joshi asked him if he wanted to sleep in the same bed as he thought he would hear more stories of his cricket heroes but that having fallen asleep, he woke up to allegedly find his underpants being pulled down and Joshi touching him inappropriately.
The following morning before the training session, Joshi told him it was their "secret".
Around two weeks later, the victim said he was again staying in the house and had gone to bed but that Joshi was standing at his bedroom door in vest and underpants, "beckoning" him into the bedroom.
He told the jury he only went with Joshi to avoid a scene but that once in the bedroom, Joshi put him face down on the bed and abused him again.
On another occasion when the boy stayed overnight at the house, he told the jury that this time "I had a strategy" and when Joshi again came to his bedroom door in vest and pants, the alleged pervert left when he motioned to lift a shoe "to fight him off".
Married father-of-two Joshi gave evidence to the court on his own behalf, claiming that nothing untoward or sexual had ever happened between him and the victim.
The jury also heard numerous references about Joshi, written by a former Indian test player and a school principal where Joshi also coached, speaking of his "impeccable moral character".
Releasing Joshi on bail on Friday and ordering pre-sentence probation reports to be compiled on him, Judge Loughran said she was doing so "without prejudice" to the final sentence, set to be determined next month.