The Court of Appeal dismissed Donal Connaughton’s appeal against convictions for threats to kill, assault causing harm, false imprisonment and criminal damage, ruling that it had no concern about the safety of the verdicts.
In its ex tempore judgment delivered on 12 May 2017, the court said the appeal arose from Connaughton’s claim that alleged contact between a juror and people connected to him had tainted the jury’s verdict. The court rejected the appeal. It did not set aside the convictions.
Connaughton had been convicted on 20 December 2012 after a trial alongside his wife, who was acquitted on all counts. He received a 12-month prison sentence on 24 October 2013 and was admitted to bail pending appeal on 27 November 2013.
The underlying offences arose from an incident on 29 April 2010 at Connaughton’s piggery in Co Longford. Two men arrived in connection with a finance arrangement for a generator and power washers, when about €2,500 was owed. The judgment said the men were threatened aggressively; one suffered injuries. An employee, described as a co-accused, pleaded guilty to certain offences and received a suspended sentence.
The appeal focused on Connaughton’s account of approaches made while the trial was under way. He said an individual told him that a juror could be approached if a debt owed by his son was cleared. Connaughton also claimed that he later spoke with the juror, who allegedly described keeping another person updated during the trial. A meeting at Connaughton’s home was video-recorded, but the judgment said a Garda investigation found the recording had been altered by “cutting and pasting”. These matters were presented as allegations in the appeal judgment, not findings that the jury was improperly influenced.
The court noted that, on Connaughton’s own account, he was a party to the alleged impropriety. It said it would be extremely reluctant to reward clear wrongdoing, but treated the safety of the verdict as the central question. The judges relied in part on the audio recording of the incident and the trial judge’s comments that the jury’s convictions and acquittals were consistent with the evidence. The trial judge had said the recording clearly corroborated the men’s accounts.
The judgment also noted that Connaughton expressed remorse at sentencing. The trial judge said that expression affected the sentence, imposing 12 months rather than the 16 months he had been considering. The Court of Appeal concluded that there was “no” concern about the verdicts’ safety and dismissed the appeal.