The Court of Appeal has dismissed Ivan Seredych’s appeal against his conviction for sexual assault, ruling that the trial judge acted within her discretion when she declined to give the jury a corroboration warning.
Seredych was convicted on 18 November 2015 of one count of sexual assault and sentenced to three years in prison, backdated to the day he entered custody. His appeal challenged the trial judge’s refusal to give the warning after the defence requested it. A separate argument about explaining corroboration to the jury was not pursued by senior counsel at the appeal hearing.
The case concerned events in Dublin in June 2012. The complainant, who was living in Cavan at the time, had attended a 21st birthday party at Clontarf Castle and later went to the Temple Bar area. After becoming separated from her friends, she accepted a taxi ride. She told the trial that the driver touched her under her underwear and later placed her hand on his penis. She said she directed him to Raheny, where she knew there was a garda station, and reported the incident there.
Police later found a taxi badge with a photograph and number at Seredych’s home under a search warrant. The judgment says it matched the details the complainant had recorded on her phone. Seredych was arrested and questioned in August 2012.
At trial, the defence sought a corroboration warning, citing the complainant’s drinking and her distress and apprehension that night. The prosecution opposed the request, arguing that the evidence did not provide a basis to treat her as unreliable. After considering submissions and reviewing the evidence, the trial judge refused the warning.
The appeal court said the warning was a matter for the trial judge’s statutory discretion. It found that her reasoned ruling had engaged with the issue, including evidence about the complainant’s drinking, distress and ability to record the taxi details and identify a destination. The appeal court said it could intervene only if the refusal was a manifestly wrong exercise of discretion. It found no such error and dismissed the appeal. The court did not reconsider the conviction on other grounds.