DPP challenges order prohibiting alleged abuse trial

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

The Director of Public Prosecutions moved on 4 June 2019 to appeal a High Court order prohibiting the trial of a man accused of raping and sexually abusing his two sisters. The Court of Appeal reserved judgment.

The 59-year-old man, who cannot be identified for legal reasons, had been charged with 17 counts relating to alleged offences between 1974 and 1985. The report said only one charge had a specific date and neither complainant was apparently aware of the alleged abuse of the other at the time.

The man maintained that he did not live in the family home during the relevant period but lived with his grandparents and then another relative, all of whom had since died. He successfully sought to prohibit his trial on grounds of delay, claiming the deaths of potential witnesses caused him specific prejudice. He also claimed adverse publicity from an earlier conviction for serious sexual offending would prevent a fair trial.

In a judgment earlier in 2019, Mr Justice Garrett Simons said the deaths denied the man an opportunity to advance particular lines of defence. He also said some surviving witnesses were elderly and some had told gardaí they had no clear recollection of events. He said the risk of an unfair trial could not be avoided by specific warnings to a jury.

For the DPP, Eilis Brennan SC said the witnesses referred to by the judge were peripheral and had no specific evidence of guilt or innocence; she said the man's parents were alive. Mr Justice John Edwards, sitting with Ms Justice Máire Whelan and Ms Justice Isobel Kennedy, said the court would reserve judgment.