53-year-old man appealed sexual assault conviction over jury bias

This report is a localnews.ie summary based on public court reporting and records; sources are listed below.

A 53-year-old man appealed his sexual assault conviction before the Court of Appeal, reported on 24 April 2020. His lawyers argued that information gathered after the trial raised concerns about the jury’s impartiality.

The man was convicted in February 2019 and received a three-and-a-half-year sentence, with the final year suspended, on 17 May 2019. The Court of Appeal reserved its judgment after hearing competing submissions about alleged connections involving jurors and the complainant’s family.

The President of the Court of Appeal said he had never heard of jurors being researched after a trial and would deprecate the practice if it became common.