Cork man’s appeal against rape convictions dismissed

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

A Cork man’s appeal against his convictions for raping and sexually assaulting his then partner and her son was dismissed by the Court of Appeal on 9 May 2024. He cannot be named to protect the anonymity of his victims.

In March 2022, a Central Criminal Court jury convicted him of 61 counts: two of raping his then partner, 52 of sexually assaulting her, one of raping her son, four of sexually assaulting the boy and two of cruelty to his ex-partner’s children. The offending took place between October 2013 and December 2015; the boy was aged between nine and 11 at the time.

He had pleaded not guilty to all charges. He maintained his innocence and had no previous convictions.

Mr Justice Michael McGrath imposed a 12-year prison sentence and a 12-month post-release supervision order. He said it was not appropriate to suspend part of the sentence because the defendant had expressed no remorse, and backdated it to 23 March. The sentencing proceedings were reported on 29 July 2022.

The man appealed in August 2022, challenging the admission of photographs of the woman’s injuries, the refusal to discharge the jury after a witness mentioned a black eye, and the re-examination of a complainant. He sought additional grounds in March 2024 concerning the judge’s directions to the jury.

Mr Justice John Edwards said the photographs were properly admitted, the trial judge was right not to discharge the jury and the re-examination was appropriate. The judge said the jury had been instructed to disregard the black-eye evidence. The court refused the additional grounds and dismissed the appeal.