The Court of Appeal has dismissed P.C.’s appeal against convictions for eight counts of indecent assault and three counts of rape, leaving the convictions in place.
The appeal concerned convictions returned by a jury at the Central Criminal Court on 17 July 2015. P.C. received prison terms in October 2015: five years on seven indecent-assault counts, six years on the eighth, and ten years on each rape count. The judgment records the offences as having occurred between May 1986 and August 1988. The complainant was P.C.’s niece and was aged between seven and nine during that period.
The main appeal arguments concerned a reference the complainant made during her testimony to telling a school friend about the alleged abuse. The prosecution accepted that the reference was inadmissible. The trial judge declined the defence application to discharge the jury, and the reference was not pursued further during the trial.
The Court of Appeal said the question was whether the brief reference created a real and substantial risk of an unfair trial and, if so, whether steps were taken to address any prejudice. It noted that the comment arose early in the trial, was not elaborated on, and was not expressly mentioned in the trial judge’s closing directions. The jury had received a comprehensive warning on corroboration, including that the complainant could not corroborate her own evidence. The appeal court rejected these grounds.
The appellant also argued that the jury should have been directed that evidence he had no previous convictions supported his credibility as a witness. The trial judge recalled the jury and told them that the evidence was an important matter for them to know in relation to P.C. The Court of Appeal concluded that, in the circumstances, the judge was not required to say more. It rejected that ground too and dismissed the appeal.