Joseph Anderson's abuse conviction and sentence upheld

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

The Court of Appeal upheld Joseph Anderson’s conviction for abusing a boy and his six-year sentence. Anderson lost his appeal against conviction on 26 October 2018, with the court holding that the trial was satisfactory and the conviction safe.

Anderson pleaded not guilty to 12 counts of sexual assault and one count of oral rape. The charges concerned a period between August 1992 and May 1995, when the boy was aged between 12 and 15. The proceedings were reported on 26 October 2018.

A jury at the Central Criminal Court found Anderson guilty, and Mr Justice Paul Butler sentenced him to six years’ imprisonment on 28 July 2016. Anderson had no previous convictions.

Anderson’s lawyers argued that the complainant’s repeated return to his house was at odds with the proposition that abuse had occurred. Giving judgment, Mr Justice Patrick McCarthy said it was for the jury to decide what significance, if any, to attach to those returns, and that the trial judge had properly and sufficiently instructed the jury on the issue.

On sentence, Mr Justice McCarthy said Anderson deserved credit for his active opposition to drug dealing as editor of a small privately published newspaper. However, he said the effects on the victim had been very grave. He said the court was satisfied that the trial judge had considered all relevant factors, although the judge had not explicitly referred to evidence that might be considered grooming.