The Court of Appeal has dismissed J.W.’s appeal against his conviction by a jury on 40 counts of indecent assault or sexual assault, finding no basis to set aside the verdict.
The judgment, delivered on 14 October 2021 by Mr Justice Edwards, concerned a three-day trial in November 2019. J.W. had been sentenced to concurrent terms of three years and six months’ imprisonment on each count. The appeal was against conviction; the Court of Appeal did not alter the sentence in its decision.
The allegations concerned conduct said to have occurred between 1990 and 2000, when the complainant was aged between eight and 18. She was adopted by J.W. and his wife. The complainant testified that the abuse took place over years, including in family homes in a Dublin postal area. J.W. denied the allegations and denied making an admission to her. The jury convicted him.
J.W. argued that the trial should have been stopped because the passage of time, missing witnesses and alleged unfairness in the Garda investigation prevented a fair trial. The Court of Appeal accepted that the delay was substantial and capable of causing prejudice. But it concluded that the unavailable teacher and the complainant’s late mother did not deprive J.W. of a realistic opportunity to pursue an obviously useful defence. It said the suggested value of their evidence was speculative. The court also rejected a complaint about a bedroom-door lock, noting that the issue had not been relied on at trial and had not been put to the complainant in cross-examination.
The appeal court found no error in the trial judge’s decision to accept the investigating inspector’s explanation about his conduct and text messages to a family member. The trial judge had rejected the claim that the investigation was biased, and that ruling was open to her on the evidence, the appeal court said.
The court also upheld the trial judge’s directions to the jury on delay. The jury had been told about the difficulties of defending allegations many years after the events, the prosecution’s burden to prove each count beyond reasonable doubt, and the absence of the teacher and the complainant’s mother. The appeal court found the directions adequate in the circumstances.
It further found no proper basis to interfere with the trial judge’s discretionary decision not to give a corroboration warning. The Court of Appeal concluded that the trial was satisfactory and the verdict safe, and dismissed the appeal against conviction.