The High Court has refused to stop the prosecution of B.S. over an alleged rape dating from 1970, despite a delay of more than four decades and the deaths of three people he said could have assisted his defence.
B.S. had been returned for trial in the Central Criminal Court on one charge alleging that he raped A.B. on an unknown date between 1 January and 21 May 1970. He denies the allegation.
A.B., who was born in 1963, alleged that she was seven or eight when B.S., then a teenage farm labourer employed by her father, repeatedly raped her in an isolated field adjoining the family farm. She said he lured her there with sweets and small amounts of money and warned her not to tell anyone.
B.S., born in May 1953, was about 16 or 17 at the relevant time. He argued that the long delay had deprived him of evidence from two deceased farm workers and A.B.'s late father, who had employed him.
The central dispute concerned why B.S.'s employment ended. A.B.'s account indicated that she told her mother about the alleged abuse and that B.S. was gone shortly afterwards. B.S. maintained that he left on good terms after becoming ill during a period when livestock losses, illness and accidents on the farm were attributed locally to "piseogs" or bad luck.
Mr Justice McDermott held that the two deceased labourers could, at most, have offered general evidence about farm life. As for A.B.'s father, there was no independent evidence showing a real possibility that he would have supported B.S.'s account of why the employment ended.
The judge also noted that disclosure was incomplete and statements from some of A.B.'s siblings had not yet been furnished or investigated by the defence.
The application was refused. However, the ruling does not decide B.S.'s guilt. The trial judge retains power to stop the trial if later disclosure or evidence establishes a real and serious risk of unfairness.