Man loses appeal against rape and sexual assault convictions

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

A man convicted of raping and sexually assaulting his partner’s daughter has lost his appeal against conviction. He cannot be named to protect the victim’s identity.

A Central Criminal Court jury convicted him in 2014 of four counts of rape and eight counts of sexual assault. In May 2014, he was sentenced to a total of 12 years in prison.

The abuse occurred between June 2003 and May 2008, when the girl was aged between six and 11. She complained to social services in 2008 and was interviewed by specialists in 2010. Recordings of those interviews were shown to the jury.

She told interviewers that the abuse began with touching in the family home and progressed to oral and vaginal rape. She said he warned her after a rape that she would be “going ten feet under” if she told anyone.

His lawyers argued that the death of the girl’s grandmother had harmed the defence. She had given evidence in an earlier trial that ended with the jury disagreeing. The defence had wanted to cross-examine her to suggest she had encouraged the complaint because she disliked the accused.

Court of Appeal president Justice George Birmingham said the defence could have read transcripts of her earlier evidence to the jury and that her death had caused no unfairness. He also rejected challenges to the use of video-link evidence and the recorded interviews. Other grounds concerning the admissibility of evidence were rejected.

The proceedings were reported on 24 May 2021.

This report covers an earlier stage of the case. Later developments are not reported here.