Courts / Ireland / Report
Elderly man seeks to halt trial on abuse charges
Summary
An elderly man in his late seventies, whose identity is withheld for legal reasons, has filed a High Court challenge to stop his trial for more than 350 charges of sexually abusing four nephews between 1967 and 1984. The alleged assaults took place in and around his family home on the Western seaboard while the victims were minors on holiday. He denies the allegations and argues he will not receive a fair trial because of prosecutorial delay, his poor health, cognitive difficulties, and the deaths of potential witnesses such as his parents. His counsel noted that the allegations were discussed within the family in the early 1990s and 2002, but no complaint was made until 2016, and that evidence that would have been available earlier is now lost. In judicial review proceedings against the DPP, he seeks orders to prohibit the trial and a declaration that exceptional circumstances make a trial unfair.
Who, what, where, when and why
What: Report matter: Elderly man seeks to halt trial on abuse charges. Procedural stage: charge_or_pretrial
When:
- 1967 and 1984 Incident
- 2020-05-12 Publication
Case subjects
Accused
Places mentioned
- High Court
- Circuit Criminal Court
- The High Court
Topics
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