Man from UK appeals rape and child cruelty convictions

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

A man from the UK is appealing his 2016 convictions for nine counts of raping his son and one count of child cruelty. The proceedings were reported on 11 January 2021.

The man, who was 70 when the appeal was reported, had been convicted of raping his son from the age of six and of locking him in a box. He received a 15-year sentence, with the final year suspended. His partner was convicted of child cruelty but acquitted of sexual assault.

At the Court of Appeal, judges criticised the six days Colman Cody SC spent cross-examining the boy, then aged 12. Mr Justice Patrick McCarthy said he was “shocked” by the length of the questioning. Ms Justice Isobel Kennedy said she found it difficult to see how its length could be justified.

Mr Cody said he had dealt with the boy in a respectful and measured way and described it as a particularly difficult and unique case. Ms Justice Kennedy said it was not unique and that the three judges had dealt with similar cases.

The first day of the appeal focused on the trial judge’s decision to allow a garda to give evidence about a video showing the man, his partner and another person engaging in sex acts. Mr Cody argued that the video depicted consensual activity, had been recorded about six years before the alleged rapes and was irrelevant and prejudicial.

Pauline Walley SC, for the Director of Public Prosecutions, said the video was consistent with aspects of the boy’s account, including his description of his father sometimes recording the abuse. She said it also contradicted the man’s claim that there had been no pornography at his home after the boy’s birth. The appeal was due to continue on Tuesday.