Man appeals rape conviction at Court of Appeal

This report is a localnews.ie summary based on public court reporting and records; sources are listed below.

A man appealed his conviction for raping his eight-year-old daughter at the Court of Appeal on 5 February 2015. The proceedings were reported on 5 February 2015.

The 46-year-old man cannot be named for legal reasons. The rape charge concerned a date in September 2007. He had pleaded not guilty.

Following a retrial, a jury at the Central Criminal Court found him guilty of rape. Mr Justice Paul Carney sentenced him to 12 years in prison on 11 July 2011. He was cleared of indecent assault, to which he had also pleaded not guilty.

His appeal argued that the trial judge should have directed an acquittal and that the jury’s verdict was perverse. His barrister, Blaise O’Carroll SC, argued that the complainant’s evidence was contradictory and incredible and could not, taken as a whole, constitute evidence.

Dominic McGinn SC, for the Director of Public Prosecutions, said the jury was best placed to assess credibility and reliability. He said the complainant had been thoroughly cross-examined, the appeal points had been put to her at trial, and the judge had summarised the evidence, including its inconsistencies.

Mr Justice George Birmingham, sitting with Mr Justice Garrett Sheehan and Mr Justice John Edwards, said judgment would be reserved until a date in March.

In separate proceedings, Ms Justice Elizabeth Dunne imposed a six-year sentence in July 2010 after the man was found guilty of neglecting four of his five children and assaulting his sons between 1 January and 28 September 2007.

That jury could not agree verdicts on neglect concerning his youngest son or rape and sexual assault concerning one daughter. Ms Justice Elizabeth Dunne directed a not-guilty verdict on a sexual-assault charge concerning one son. He had denied all those charges.

The Court of Criminal Appeal dismissed his appeal against the six-year sentence in 2013, with Mr Justice Nial Fennelly delivering the dismissal. The report said that sentence had elapsed by the time the appeal was heard, when he was serving the 12-year sentence.