The Court of Appeal has upheld the conviction of K.M., a general practitioner, for indecently assaulting a 15-year-old patient during a home visit in 1989.
K.M. was convicted by a jury at Cork Circuit Criminal Court in November 2015. The complainant, M.H., alleged that on December 23, 1989, while her mother was terminally ill, K.M. examined her in a bedroom and touched her vaginal area over her clothing. K.M. denied that the incident happened.
The complainant reported the allegation to Gardaí in October 2010. K.M. was arrested in June 2011. During interview he handed Gardaí a prepared statement in which he said he did not recall examining M.H. at her home and described the allegation as false.
When Gardaí later put the detailed allegation to him, he repeatedly replied that he had nothing to say beyond what was written in that statement. Those exchanges were admitted at trial.
On appeal, K.M. argued that this breached his right to silence and that the jury should have been discharged. The Court of Appeal rejected that submission. It drew a distinction between refusing to answer questions and maintaining a position already set out voluntarily in a prepared statement. The court held that K.M. had not remained silent but had continued to rely on his earlier denial.
His second argument concerned the absence of a corroboration warning. The defence relied on differences between the complainant’s Garda statement and trial evidence over whether the bedroom door had merely been closed or had been locked.
The Court of Appeal found that issue peripheral to the core allegation. It also noted that defence counsel had neither requested a corroboration warning before the judge’s charge nor raised the omission afterwards.
The trial judge had expressly considered whether such a warning was necessary and decided it was not. The appeal court found that decision fell within his discretion.
Both appeal grounds were rejected and the conviction was affirmed.