Mother and partner lose appeals against convictions for abuse of children

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

The Court of Appeal upheld the convictions of a woman and her partner for the rape and abuse of her two young children on 14 June 2024. The pair, who were jailed for a combined 33 years, cannot be named to protect the children’s identities.

Both had denied offences involving the woman’s daughter and son at two locations in Connacht between October 2012 and September 2014. They were convicted at the Central Criminal Court in November 2022 after a six-week trial.

In relation to the girl, the man was convicted of one count of rape, six of oral rape and one of false imprisonment. He was also convicted of oral rape, anal rape and sexual assault of the boy.

The mother was convicted of four counts each of sexual assault, sexual exploitation and oral rape on the basis of joint enterprise, as well as false imprisonment and reckless endangerment of her daughter. She was also convicted of reckless endangerment of her son.

On 13 March 2023, Mr Justice David Keane sentenced the man to 19 years for the rape counts, six years for false imprisonment and eight years for sexual assaults. He sentenced the woman to 14 years for the rape counts, eight years for sexual exploitation, five years for sexual assault, five years for reckless endangerment of both children and four years for false imprisonment. Each defendant’s sentences were to run concurrently; the judge refused to suspend any portion.

Both were to be added to the sexual offenders register and were ordered to be supervised by the Probation Service for two years after release.

At the appeal hearing in April 2024, Michael Lynn SC, for the man, argued that the delay and the admission of the children’s interviews were unfair. He submitted that leading or suggestive questions had been used and that the defence had limited opportunity to assess the children’s competence at the time of the interviews. Dominic McGinn SC, for the woman, said the girl could not remember giving her initial interviews.

Delivering the ruling, Ms Justice Tara Burns described the delay as “truly shocking” but said delay alone was insufficient to halt a trial. The court found the interviews admissible and rejected the argument about testing the children’s competence.