The Court of Appeal dismissed Philippe Cauneze’s fourth application under section 2 of the Criminal Procedure Act 1993, describing it as a flagrant abuse of process and entirely vexatious.
In an ex tempore judgment delivered on 15 April 2016, Mr Justice Birmingham said the application recast matters Mr Cauneze had raised before but produced “Nothing new whatsoever”. The court dismissed the application. The judgment does not record any further order.
Mr Cauneze stood trial in the Central Criminal Court in March 2000 on a number of charges. On 10 March 2000, he was convicted on count 3 of the indictment, aggravated sexual assault, the judgment states.
The Court of Appeal had dealt with his third section 2 application in November 2015 and issued a written judgment and ruling on 21 December 2015. It had dismissed that application, finding that no new or newly discovered fact had been produced and describing the attempt to relitigate matters already decided as vexatious and an abuse of process.
The 2016 judgment states that Mr Cauneze had withdrawn his appeal against conviction. It does not set out the underlying allegations or identify the matters raised in the latest application.