A father and three sons have been convicted at the Central Criminal Court of more than 100 counts of sexual assault and rape against four members of their family when they were children.

The oldest man's wife, who is the mother of the three other defendants, was found guilty of assisting one of her sons to conceal the rape of one of the victims, her granddaughter.

She was also found guilty of assaulting the same victim.

They will all be sentenced later this year.

The five, who are all members of an extended family who are part of the Travelling community, were found guilty by a jury following a trial which began earlier this month.

The jurors took seven hours and 33 minutes to reach their verdicts.

They unanimously found the defendants guilty on 117 of the 126 counts they faced.

The court heard the family members moved often and the offences took place at different locations around the country.

The oldest defendant, who is 66, is already serving a 16 year sentence for repeatedly raping his daughter.

The court heard he is the father of her oldest child. The jury found three of his sons guilty of multiple rapes of the same woman, their sister.

At the older man's sentence hearing two years ago, the woman described how the man was a "devil wearing a mask" and said he lived like a king while she was made "feel like dirt".

At this trial she told the court she had been raped and abused by three of her brothers, three or four times a week from the age of 12 to the age of 18.

The three other victims all gave evidence via video link of being raped when they were children.

Prosecuting counsel, Shane Costello had described the evidence in the case as graphic and unsavoury.

He said the accounts of the victims were "harrowing" and they had described being "treated like dogs".

The offences took place between 1999 and 2004 when the victims were between around seven or eight years old and 18.

Defence barristers had criticised the lack of detail in the evidence of the victims.

But Mr Costello told the jurors they had been children in the Travelling community, moving around the country, living on the side of roads.

He said they had done the "absolute level best" they could. He said they had told the jury the truth and had nothing to gain from it.

Ms Justice Mary Ellen Ring excused the jurors from jury service for the next ten years.

She told them she had to get victim impact reports to assess the nature of the impact on the victims.

A probation report was ordered in relation to the convicted woman, who is 63 years old.

Mr Costello said such reports were now taking ten to 12 weeks to prepare.

The judge adjourned the case for mention in July. It is likely the sentencing will not take place until later in the year.

She remanded the three family members who are already on bail on continuing bail with an added condition to sign on at a garda station four times a week.

She said if there was even one breach of this condition she would revoke bail.