The Court of Appeal has dismissed A.D.’s appeal against his conviction for sexual assault, rejecting arguments that the trial judge should have stopped the case before it went to the jury and that the jury’s verdict was perverse.
The judgment, delivered by Mr Justice McCarthy on 11 March 2021, dealt with conviction only. A.D. had also appealed his sentence, but that issue was not addressed in this judgment. He was convicted on 19 November 2018 and sentenced on 5 February 2019 to two and a half years’ imprisonment, with the final 18 months suspended.
The offence was said to have occurred on 21 June 2015 at A.D.’s home in a Dublin suburb. The complainant, Ms P, had attended an engagement party for Ms L. B and A.D. and planned to stay overnight. She testified that, after returning to the house in the early morning, she went to sleep in a spare bedroom. She said A.D. touched her under her skirt and that she struggled to move away before he left.
The judgment describes differences between Ms P’s trial evidence and accounts she gave shortly after the incident. Her initial reports included an allegation of attempted rape, but at trial she accepted that A.D. had not put his penis in her vagina. The Court of Appeal recounted those inconsistencies as part of the appeal arguments; it did not make a new finding about what occurred.
After the prosecution evidence at trial, the defence sought a direction to acquit, arguing that the inconsistencies meant the case should not go to the jury. The trial judge refused. The Court of Appeal held that the judge had considered the relevant evidence and applied the correct legal principles. It said the weaknesses in the evidence were matters for the jury to assess.
The appeal also argued that the verdict was perverse. The court said that such a finding requires exceptional circumstances and a strong basis. It concluded there was evidence on which the jury could convict and no additional circumstance showing the verdict was perverse. It rejected that ground and dismissed the appeal against conviction.