Courts / Tipperary / Report

Abuser sought to undermine schoolgirl's credibility with texts she shared with boy (13)

Date
2019-02-05

Stage
Appeal

Primary locality
Tipperary

Summary

A 54‑year‑old Tipperary man was convicted of two counts of sexual assault and two counts of defilement of a child in 2014, after a jury found him guilty of abusing a 14‑year‑old schoolgirl in 2009 and 2010. He was sentenced to six years' imprisonment by Judge Thomas Teehan. The man appealed only on the ground that his lawyers should have been allowed to introduce text messages exchanged between the victim and a 13‑year‑old boy, which he claimed could undermine the girl's credibility. The Court of Appeal, led by Mr Justice George Birmingham, rejected the appeal, holding that the text messages did not meet the statutory threshold for admissibility and that the defence had no other evidence of penetration. The court noted that the victim had denied any sexual relationship with the boy and that the texts were not relevant to the conviction. The appeal was dismissed, leaving the six‑year sentence in place.

Who, what, where, when and why

What: Report matter: Abuser sought to undermine schoolgirl's credibility with texts she shared with boy (13). Procedural stage: appeal. Findings: Found guilty

When:

June 27, 2014 Incident
March 2010 Incident
September 2010 Incident
August 2010 Incident
2009 and 2010 Incident
2019-02-05 Publication

Why: Those dates were important, Mr Justice Birmingham said, because it meant those texts were exchanged at a time after penetrative trauma had occurred. CNI source report