The High Court has prohibited the prosecution of an 85-year-old man on 28 historic indecent assault charges after finding that State authorities took an unacceptable 28 months to bring him properly before a court after receiving the complaint.
The applicant, identified only as P.T., faced allegations concerning a complainant identified as M.T.Q., née C. Twenty-two charges related to his then residence and six to an unknown location. The alleged offences dated from April 1965 to September 1970, when the complainant was approximately eight to 13 years old.
P.T. denied the allegations and sought to stop the trial, arguing that the passage of decades had compromised his ability to receive a fair hearing. He also relied on his advanced age, poor health and what he said was prosecutorial delay.
The complainant first disclosed the alleged abuse to another person in 1989 and later spoke to her husband, a solicitor friend, her GP and others. Psychological evidence described shame, low self-worth and difficulties making disclosure. Ms Justice Dunne accepted that there was a reasonable explanation for the complainant's delay in reporting the allegations to the authorities.
The court then considered the separate period after the complaint reached gardaí on 29 May 2002. P.T. was interviewed in December 2002, an investigation file went to the DPP in July 2003, directions to prosecute issued in March 2004, and valid summonses ultimately brought him before the District Court on 28 September 2004.
Dunne J found that the investigation could not be described as slovenly, but said there had nevertheless been a lack of urgency. The prosecution case depended essentially on statements from the complainant and her sister, there was no difficulty locating P.T., and significant parts of the delay remained unexplained.
Given the already historic nature of the allegations and P.T.'s age and health, the judge held that the 28-month post-complaint delay was blameworthy and breached his right to a trial with due expedition. The proposed trial was therefore prohibited.