Sexual assault convictions upheld on appeal

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

The Court of Appeal dismissed a man's appeal against all 29 sexual assault convictions in a judgment dated 18 February 2015 delivered by Mr. Justice Edwards. The court deemed the conviction safe and found that none of his pleaded grounds of appeal had been sustained.

He pleaded not guilty upon arraignment on 8 March 2012 in the Circuit Criminal Court for the South Western Circuit and County of Kerry. The charges were under section 2 of the Criminal Law (Rape) (Amendment) Act 1990 and concerned four female complainants, three from the same family.

Seventeen counts concerned one complainant between 1 March 2004 and 30 June 2008; eight concerned another between 1 December 2003 and 31 October 2008. One count concerned a third complainant between 1 April and 30 June 2003. Three counts concerned the fourth complainant, initially covering 1 July to 31 August 2003; the indictment was amended during trial to extend that period back to 1 July 2002.

On 23 March 2012, after a ten-day trial, the jury convicted him on counts 1–18 and 20–29 by an 11:1 majority. Later that day, it convicted him on count 19 by a 10:2 majority.

On 4 May 2012, he received eight years' imprisonment in total: three years on each of counts 1–17; two years on each of counts 18–25; one year on count 26; and two years on each of counts 27–29. Sentences within each multi-count group ran concurrently, while the four groups ran consecutively. The first group's sentences were backdated to 23 March 2012, when he entered custody.

His appeal challenged the adequacy of the particulars supplied, refusal of separate trials, amendment of the indictment, refusal to discharge the jury, and admission of evidence about the suspension of his questioning in the early hours of 31 August 2010 and consequential material. The appeal concerned conviction, rather than sentence.