Court of Appeal rejects Joseph O'Connor's appeal against conviction

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

The Court of Appeal dismissed Joseph O'Connor's appeal against his convictions for possessing child pornography, leaving the convictions in place. The court rejected all grounds of appeal, including challenges concerning an unavailable witness, the search, the refusal to direct an acquittal and the jury directions.

O'Connor had been convicted on four counts in November 2018 and sentenced to two years in prison on 15 February 2019. He had argued, among other things, that others could have used his laptop; the appeal court found a rational basis for concluding that the material had been on the computer while it was under his control.