John Barrow has conviction upheld for indecent assault

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

John Barrow had his conviction for six counts of indecent assault upheld by the Court of Appeal on 10 December 2019. He had been sentenced at Donegal Circuit Criminal Court on 19 June 2017 to six years in prison, with the final two years suspended, by Judge Cormac Quinn.

Barrow had denied indecently assaulting a boy who was then 14, with the alleged offending said to have occurred in the county between August 1989 and September 1990. The appeal court dismissed his challenge after finding the trial judge was entitled to leave the case to the jury.

The defence argued that the timing evidence was fundamentally inconsistent and that Barrow should have received a directed acquittal. The judgment noted inconsistencies in the complainant’s account, but also recorded that he retained his core complaint, could describe Barrow’s home and had retained a novel Barrow gave him; other evidence related to their shared hobby was also cited.

The proceedings were reported on 11 December 2019.