The Court of Appeal has dismissed Jason Sherin’s appeal against his convictions for sexual assault and assault causing harm, finding that evidence about a report made to Gardaí did not render the trial unsatisfactory or the verdicts unsafe.
Sherin was convicted at Cork Circuit Court on 5 November 2015 after what the appeal judgment described as effectively a one-day trial. The Court of Appeal judgment, delivered by Mr Justice Birmingham on 31 July 2017, said the appeal hearing focused on whether evidence of a recent complaint in a sexual assault case had been admitted properly.
The convictions arose from an incident on 6 June 2013. The complainant told the trial that a group entered her home, where she was assaulted. She said Sherin grabbed her over her clothing and threatened to rape her, then punched her. Her son testified that Sherin entered the room where he was watching television, punched him in the face and kneed him in the testicles. The defence case was that Sherin was not present; co-accused Gordon and Thomas Sherin had pleaded guilty to counts arising from the incident before the trial.
The appeal issue concerned Garda Clíona O’Brien’s evidence. She had attended the scene after a 999 call at 10.45pm on 6 June. In a discussion outside the jury’s presence, the prosecution said the complainant had reported that three men and one woman entered the home and that they were identified by name. The defence objected that this was hearsay and argued the report did not include a complaint of sexual assault. The trial judge allowed evidence about the nature of the complaint and the number of people said to have been present, limiting its scope because the complainant’s credibility on that number had been challenged.
Before the jury, O’Brien testified that she had been told three men and one woman entered the home, and that the complainant alleged she had been physically assaulted and threatened with rape.
The Court of Appeal said the trial judge’s intervention after cross-examination would have been preferable to avoid. However, it found the evidence was not inconsistent with the complainant’s trial testimony. It also noted that the jury had already heard, through cross-examination, that the complainant’s statement the morning after the incident named the four Sherins, and that her son’s statement referred to Jason Sherin and attributed the punch to him.
The appeal court concluded that the Garda’s evidence, the only issue pursued at the appeal hearing, did not make the trial unsatisfactory or the verdicts unsafe. It dismissed the appeal against conviction. The judgment addresses the conviction appeal; it does not state any sentence or other order.