The Court of Appeal has dismissed O.B.’s appeal against conviction for 25 counts of indecent assault of his daughter, committed between 1980 and 1986. The court found that the trial judge did not err in refusing a competency hearing for the complainant or in limiting questions put to her during cross-examination.
A jury found O.B. guilty in June 2023. The trial judge sentenced him the following month to seven years in prison, to run consecutively to a sentence he was already serving for sexually abusing another daughter. The appeal addressed the conviction; the Court of Appeal said it was not upholding any of the grounds raised against it.
The complainant was aged between seven and 12 when the offences occurred. The judgment says the assaults took place up to three times a week, at the family home and another location, and that she was also subjected to physical violence. She left home at age 12. Gardaí were notified of her allegations in 2009, and O.B. was charged in 2011.
The appeal focused in part on the complainant’s mental health history. Medical records disclosed to the defence included references to diagnoses reported in 2008 and 2009. The judgment also records later psychiatric reports, including one stating that she was capable of telling the truth and taking an oath. The defence sought a competency hearing but did not call medical evidence.
The Court of Appeal said a formal challenge alone did not entitle a party to a competency hearing. Some foundation had to raise a genuine question for the trial judge. The defence had not presented evidence about whether the reported diagnosis affected the complainant’s ability to give truthful evidence or the reliability of her original complaint. The court held that the trial judge was entitled to rely on the unchallenged information from the treating psychiatrist and refuse a hearing.
The trial judge allowed questioning about the complainant’s mental health insofar as it related to her reliability as a witness. The judge refused questions about an alleged assault on a former partner, which the defence linked to her mental health around the time of her complaint. The Court of Appeal found that the alleged assault was not relevant to the charges and upheld that restriction.
The court dismissed the appeal against conviction. The judgment does not set out a separate determination of an appeal against sentence.