80-year-old man appeals conviction for rapes of granddaughter

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

An 80-year-old man appealed his six rape convictions at the Court of Appeal, reported on 5 July 2023. The rapes of his granddaughter took place in County Galway between 2014 and 2018.

The man, whose name is withheld to protect his victims’ identities, had been sentenced to ten years in June 2022 for the rapes. He had also admitted 81 sexual assaults on his granddaughter and her two younger sisters, for which he received a five-year sentence to run concurrently.

His lawyers argued that the trial judge’s directions to the jury were in error, including comments about matters the defence had not put to the complainant. The Court of Appeal said it hoped to deliver its judgment on 11 July 2023.