The Court of Appeal dismissed C.B.’s appeal against convictions for sexual assault and possession of child pornography, and found no merit in his appeal against the conditions attached to his sentence. It also directed that the question of whether he could be named in the judgment be listed for case management the following term; that question was not decided in the appeal.
C.B. was convicted by a unanimous jury on 7 November 2018. He received four years and six months’ imprisonment for sexual assault, with the final 18 months suspended on conditions, and one year for possession of child pornography, with the final three months suspended. The convictions arose from allegations concerning an 11-year-old girl and material found during a search of C.B.’s property. C.B. denied the assault and said he had not knowingly possessed the disc.
The appeal against conviction raised three grounds: refusal to sever the two counts, refusal to discharge the jury after the complainant’s mother said C.B. had done similar things to other children, and refusal to give a corroboration warning. The Court of Appeal rejected each ground.
On severance, the court held that the trial judge had correctly found a sufficient connection between the charges and exercised his discretion properly. It agreed that evidence on each count was admissible in relation to the other, including to assess C.B.’s claims of innocent association with the complainant and inadvertent possession of the disc. The court concluded that separate trials would have risked presenting the jury with a distorted picture.
The court also upheld the refusal to discharge the jury. It said the mother’s comment could be understood as rumour or speculation and as the words of an upset witness. No request had been made for a corrective direction to the jury. On the corroboration warning, the court found that the complainant’s age, the passage of several months before the complaint to gardaí, and issues raised about her testimony did not make such a warning necessary. Credibility and reliability were matters for the jury, and the trial judge had directed the jury on how to treat the complaint evidence.
The sentence appeal concerned the conditions attached to the suspended portions, not the custodial terms. The Court of Appeal described the conditions as fair and reasonable and dismissed that appeal. It recorded that C.B. remained on the sex offenders register for life. The judgment does not name him, and the addendum says the naming issue would be addressed separately.